Ghost of a Good Thing
by Rinna Zeki-Xiphos
Summary: Just when everything was perfect, everything came crashing down on Squall at once. A new foe arises, scarier than Ultemecia in that it's the GFs that they've fought alongside with all their life...will Squall be able to save the world one last time?
1. Chapter I

Ghost of a Good Thing

By: Selphie Lynne Tilmitt and Xifa

          Have you ever had one of those moments that make you go cold?  There's no reason for it…all you know is that suddenly there's a disturbance, and it feels like something very bad is going to come of it…then it's gone, leaving you wondering if you were insane or if there was a serious problem.  I hadn't had a feeling like this since before time compression…and I had hoped that I never would again.

I closed my eyes, thinking back on the past couple of days. There are times when you think life is so good that nothing can go wrong. And just as you think that, _everything_ goes wrong all at once. My friends and I had defeated Ultemecia... She was gone, and no one had to worry about her or Adel ever again. Time compression was a nightmare, but Rinoa saved me... Rinoa, who wasn't quite as wonderful as I had once previously thought. I knew I shouldn't feel bitter towards her or her new boyfriend, but... _Seifer Almasy?!?! _

((Flashback))

_"So, Squall...I...think we need to talk."_

_I nodded, but I didn't think I was gonna like what I heard. It was probably only something trivial that would hardly affect us at all.  But Rinoa was important to me, and anything she thought was important I would definitely listen to._

_ "What is it?"_

_"Don't get me wrong or anything, you're a great guy, but...I don't think you're the one for me.  I mean...well...I think we should just be friends."_

_"Whatever you thin,." I shrugged, wiping my face blank. Rinoa... we'd been through it all together. We had faced the Sorceress Ultemecia, I had become your knight, but now... _

_          She smiled, almost as if in relief.  I could hardly believe it…_

_"I'm glad you agree," she nodded.  "I'm sure you'll find someone perfect for you.  See you around, Squall."  She waved and walked off as if we'd just had a simple chat about the weather._

_I wondered if she realized that she was the only 'perfect' one for me. I shook my head; feeling like icy water had just been dumped_ _on me. Rinoa_...

((flashback ends))

          The only good thing that had happened out of all of this was the defeat of Ultemecia, and therefore the end of the threat.  It seemed I could finally go back to just being a normal SeeD now -- as normal as I could be without Rinoa-- and leave Headmaster Cid in charge of everything. 

          So just when I'd found the keychain flashlight light in all this smothering darkness, something had to come along to completely drain the batteries and wipe even that small bit of hope out.

"S-s-squall, do you f-f-feel that?" Selphie ran over to me.  I snapped out of my concentration, and obviously I -did- feel the quaking earth.

"C'mon!" I grabbed her arm and pulled her away, trying to get away from anything that would fall and hurt us.

"Oh, Squall," she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, deathly pale.  "Look...the window...look outside..."

          The once clear-summer's sky had turned completely black, the sun a strange shade of maroon spatched with black.  A large shadow flew around the sky...it was impossible to tell what it was since it was too dark. 

"Ohmygosh!" Selphie suddenly yelled, falling to the ground.  "That...what just...OW!...did you just feel that?!"  she cried.  "OW!"

          I winced, but I wouldn't let myself fall to the ground, even yell for that matter, because it would just show exactly how weak I'd become. I reached to the back of my head, searching for Quetzalcoatl. To my horror I found a huge blank space where all my GFs had been. There weren't any memories there, and there weren't any GFs. That was probably the third worse feeling in the world, which of course was next to being dumped by Rinoa and being trapped in time compression.

"I can't cast any magic," Selphie frowned.  "Why can't I cast any magic?  I just stocked up!"  She scowled, looking slightly annoyed, but it was probably her way of masking pain.  "Where's my potions..."

I pulled one out and handed it to her, frowning. "Our GFs are gone. Completely. We have no control, and the pain was most likely them leaving our minds." It was dawning on me as I spoke. "And magic is an ability that GFs give you. So we can't do actual magic, just para-magic... yeah..."

"Our GFs...why did they leave us?"

          I never had the chance to answer Selphie, however.

"Squall?  This is the headmaster speaking!  Would you please come to my office?"

          I groaned. Of all these times he chose to put me in charge of a havoc-ridden, chaotic garden. I nodded to Selphie.

"Be careful." I ran off to find Headmaster Cid.

          He was waiting outside his office, as usual.  He stood up as I arrived, looking nervous.

"Hopefully you can give me an accurate report of what just happened..."

          I explained the the GFs revolt, unjunctioning themselves and causing the earthquake as quickly and simply as possible, knowing that he couldn't understand just quite what I meant because he had never had a GF junctioned to him.

"So it's the GFs wanting power...here, follow me really quick..."  He led me into his office, where words were glowing in an almost magical way on his wall, as if painted by an unseen hand.

"I don't know where it came from, but I fell down during the earthquake and when I got up, here it was," Cid explained nervously.

"The time has come for you to succumb to the power that was once Ours.  Prepare for the battle to end all," the words read.

Well that was enough to creep _me_ out.

"A GF wrote that... what could it mean?"

          I searched my brain rapidly for any logical explanation, but then realized in a sense that GFs themselves weren't logical. I was  complete loss, and even Quetzalcoatl had ditched me. So much for the perfect life. Rinoa was gone. My GFs were gone. The things I treasured had abandoned me when I needed them.

          'The power that was once ours' it's obvious that the GFs want to take over. And from the sounds of it, they've had a taste of being in control. But didn't they understand? SeeD's were powerless without GFs, and without SeeD's, most GFs wouldn't ever be summoned at all. We were a team, and they had no reason to be against us. As a matter of fact, neither of us had a reason to fight. We had beaten the sorceress together. Why did they suddenly change? I would've given anything for at least time to negotiate with Quetzalcoatl. Just an hour and I was almost sure I could change things.

          Cid was reading a letter he'd pulled out of the fax machine.

"Same thing just happened down at the other Garden," Cid said, looking sick.  "Well, I'm glad we got Galbadia Garden and Trabia Garden fused.  It'll be easier for them to recuperate from this.  Martine has the same message in his office.  They'll be flying their Garden up here...it'll take both Gardens to even recover from this incident, much less prepare to fight back..."  Cid picked up the microphone for the intercom.  "Students, may I have your attention?  I know something very very bad just happened.  We'll be explaining everything later, but for right now just stay calm.  Visit the nurse if you have to.  Please don't panic.  I'm putting Squall in charge again.  Please do everything he says and don't make it harder on him."  He paused, reading the paper.  "...Galbadia Garden and Trabia will also be joining us up here.  We are all allies, PLEASE do not fight with them.  Take care, be careful, and thank you."  Cid hung it up, still reading the paper.  "Okay, let's figure this out..."

"Woah, Headmaster Cid, why did you put me in charge?! I can hardly manage a party on a SeeD mission! You keep doing this to me!" I threw my arm down. Why did he keep doing this to me?! This was gonna drive me insane! I had enough on my plate to handle between Rinoa and Quetzalcoatl, I didn't need the entire -Garden- on my shoulders!  Last time was different.  Last time the situation was completely different, but this time…no, not this time.

"You did an excellent job saving the world last time," Cid said calmly.  "And I trust you to do it again this time.  You'll be in charge of not only Balamb this time too, but the Galbadia-Trabia fusion as well.  Luckily, Martine says he's sending a...well, heck, they're not a SeeD.  Martine...well, whatever he thinks.  In any case, you're going to have a co-commander this time."

          Fury and anger, depression, it was all boiling to the surface. So many emotions, I didn't think there was room for them even with the huge empty space in my head without my GFs. I put my head in my hands, trying to come to grips with all that ha d happened. Just -trying- to get my head around all this was too much. Now I had to worry about 4000 people in the Gardens, and everything that had went wrong was gonna be entirely my fault. I didn't even have anyone to talk to, no one to lean on... I shook my head. I didn't need anyone anyway.

"Headmaster..." I desperately searched for all the words I wanted to say, but none of them came.

"You'll do just fine, Squall," he said reassuringly.  "And even if you don't, just try your hardest.  That's all I care, and that's why I put you in this position.  Because I know you'll try your hardest in any given circumstance."

          I wondered what he'd do if I simply quit Garden, fighting simply as a mercenary, no longer a SeeD and with no ties to anyone to be severed. I wouldn't be on anyone's side... I wouldn't be for one army or against another, I would be on my own side, and I could do what I thought was correct at any given time.

          But for some reason I couldn't bring myself to do it. I had grown up at Garden. This was my home, and I had to protect it. Besides, I had no where else to go. I had no desire to look to Laguna for help. None at all. He was more like a shadow in my memories then any family at all. It was his fault, I reminded myself bitterly, that Raine died. If he would've been there, just maybe he could have saved her. I wouldn't be in this position. I wouldn't be killing for money, I wouldn't -have- to be in Garden... I would be normal, with a home and a family. Not a school for mercenaries. I simply glared at Cid, and I didn't allow any more angry thoughts to go through my head.

"We're in a recovery stage right now, so there won't be much for you to do," he offered, as if hoping these few ideas would help me out.  "Tomorrow the other Gardens should arrive and we, well, er, you and the other commander, can start planning what to do."

"Sir, I'm sorry to say this, but there's no escape from leadership." I frowned. I dunno how I was keeping my voice down, but somehow I was.

"I know," Cid said, standing up and pacing around his office.  Another fax came in.  Cid read it and scowled, then scribbled on a piece of paper 'Martine, quit faxing me and get down here! -Cid' and faxed it back.  He stared outside.  Even the monsters outside were starting to act strange, undoubtedly joining sides with the GFs.  "We could be in for a long battle," Cid sighed, standing up.  "Go get some rest until tomorrow, Squall.  Just use the system," he gestured vaguely at the random wires and microphones that somehow made up our Garden's announcement system. "if you need me, or anyone else for that matter."  He stood up and left, shaking his head.

          Selphie, Zell, Quistis, Irvine...pretty much the entire group from our quest to defeat Ultemecia walked into the room.  The only person missing was Rinoa.

"We heard," Quistis commented simply.

"We're behind ya all the way," Zell said, the others nodding in agreement with him.

"Thanks." Suddenly I wanted to be around no one. I didn't want to out up with them and their comments about my leadership, yet I couldn't help but wonder with a pang if Rinoa was off somewhere with Seifer.

"Anytime, man.  Just let us know if there's anything we can do to help ya," Zell nodded.

"Alright." There wasn't anything they could do. Nothing to help me with anything, even when the whole world seemed to be falling in on me.

"Alright, then," Quistis nodded.  "Well, you probably should get some rest since you've been up here with the headmaster the entire time and haven't had a chance to.  We'll leave you alone."

          With that she walked off, the others following.

          I left numbly for the dorms, planning on locking myself in my room and -attempting- to sort this all out. I knew there was no way I could get some rest. Not with the fact that everything seemed to go wrong and everyone seemed to be abandoning me.

          I sat down on my bed and pulled out a piece of notebook paper and a pen, putting everything down in writing  and hoping maybe that was something I could come to grips with. And for another period of time I stared at my gunblade, tempting thoughts running through my head. But the Garden needed me. I couldn't do that.   I put my head in my hands again, thinking of any way to make things better. It never came to me. I closed my eyes, frustrated. So many confusing thoughts and feelings. It felt like the original quest of the assassination of the sorceress all over again. But this time... there was no one. I was completely alone. So the beginning of the end was dawning.

Xifa's notes: Please just hang around for the second chapter…I know the first one might not have been that interesting, but sometimes it's like that, just trying to get everything in.  Review if you loved it or hated it, please!  This means a lot to me and Sefie too!  Love and peace, Xifa


	2. Chapter II

A/N: Again, this is by Sefie Lynne Tilmitt too.  But we couldn't post it under both our names because it violates code 3969235 of section 2925802 chapter 43905683405 book 349, so…yeah…it's here instead.

Forgot the disclaimer last chapter, but me and Sefie don't down Final Fantasy.  Squenix formerly Squaresoft does.  We don't own it this chapter, and we didn't own it last chapter.  Sayaki is ours, though, and so is the entire storyline idea!  Whoo!   …hope you like the chapter!  Love and peace, Xifa and Sefie

Chapter Two

"Leonhart, report to the office NOW!" 

          Although I'd only heard his voice a few times before, I easily recognized this as Headmaster Martine, who'd gotten his job as headmaster of Galbadia (and now Trabia as well) Garden back sometime after the defeat of Ultemecia.

          I closed my eyes for another minute, hoping I would open them and it would all go away. But it didn't. So I got up and grabbed my gunblade, which was now pretty much useless. There were no longer 100 Ultimas junctioned to it, because now there were no junctions. I hurried to the office, the feeling of hatred at no one in particular but myself coming back quickly. I saluted to the Headmasters awkwardly.

"Good morning, Squall," Cid greeted me with almost sad cheerfulness.  It was obviously hard to be happy in such a situation.  "Today we leave you in power.  Martine and I will be running the schools and all the...you know, non-battle-related stuff so you won't have to worry about that.  Your co-commander..."        

         A girl I'd missed the first time stood up.  She'd been sitting in the floor, surrounded by papers, and forcibly trying to memorize all of them.  She saluted me, although she obviously wasn't a SeeD, her strange pinkish-violet eyes locking into mine.  She had long white hair that went down to her knees that was pulled into a braid, and an expression so serious it was almost strange.

"Commander Leonhart," she nodded professionally.

"Squall." I nodded. "Nice to meet you."

"This is Sayaki Ghost," Martine introduced her.  She still stood in attention, trying not to blink.  "Sayaki's a mercenary...not like a SeeD, though."

"This is her first time in a Garden," Cid grumbled.

"But we feel she'll be useful to you," Martine finished, directing all death-glares at Cid.

In the back of my mind I doubted it. But I had doubted Selphie and Zell and the others, especially Rinoa. I didn't know what to say to Sayaki or Ghost or whatever she went by.

"I would prefer to look at this as more of a president/vice-president situation," she spoke up, still not blinking and still standing in attention.  "Instead of all of this 'we are on the same level' stuff that Headmaster Martine was talking about, I see myself as more of a vice-commander.  I'll help you make decisions and stuff, but obviously you have more experience than I, so I'll just kind of be around to help you or whatever it is you want me to do.  Think of me as your personal servant.  I won't go get you lunch, though.  Don't even ask," the expression on her face was still almost annoyingly serious, however.

          I raised my eyebrows, amused. The president/vice-president system was if the president died, then the vice took over. I erased that morbid thought from my head, hoping the situation wouldn't come up.

"…Er... thanks." talking to her was like trying to talk to thin air, and it was creeping me out that she didn't blink like normal humans do.

"Cripes, Sayaki, stop that!  At ease!"  Martine barked.

          She diverted her gaze to him.

"You're not in charge anymore.  I'm working for him now."

"I AM--"

"She's right, Martine," Cid put in with a triumphant smile.

"BUT--"

"I only answer to Commander Leonhart now, or whoever it is he tells me to answer to," Sayaki didn't smile, but you could tell she wanted to, as she looked back to me with an amused, unblinking gaze.  I blinked, hoping to make her blink, because it was quite unnerving to have an unblinking gaze on you for five minutes.

"At ease." I said blankly, trying to keep from smiling at Martine's behavior.

          She did so, blinking a few times. 

"Dangit...dangit dangit DANGIT!  She'll listen to him but not to me?!" Martine scowled. 

"Well she's not even a SeeD you kn--"

"--I KNOW THAT CID!  You've only told me that two hundred and thirty-six times since I told you I was hiring her!  She knows a lot about GFs, okay?  I think she'll be useful."

"She's never even junctioned one!" Cid scowled back.  "She's never been in Garden!  How can she know anything about GFs?!"

"You wanna take this outside?!"

"Headmaster Cid? I think it's actually useful that she's never junctioned. For one thing, she doesn't have a big empty space in her mind--"

"I beg to differ.  Her entire mind is a big empty space," Martine mumbled almost silently.  A pencil flew at him and hit him square between the eyes.  Sayaki obviously had good aim.

It was hard to keep from laughing. "And she probably hasn't come to depend on the abilities GFs give you, like we have. Besides, if she hasn't used GFs, they have nothing against her most likely."

"Well, it's whatever you two think is best...you're in charge now," Cid stood up.

"So you do wanna fight this one out!" Martine jumped up.

"........"  Cid walked out the door.

"Aw, c'mon, wait for me!" Martine ran after him.

The four words that pretty much sealed my fate. 'You're in charge now.' I looked to Sayaki, not knowing what to say. I think even without GFs she had some form or shape of magic, because every time I looked at her I couldn't help but blink in memory of her unspoken stare down and all the words from my head were gone. It was really annoying.

"Well," Sayaki said, looking around Cid's office.  "At least his files are easy to find."  She looked down at all the papers she'd been studying.  I realized now they were files on all the students in all the Gardens, what their strengths and weaknesses were, and the like.  "Sorry about the entire thing earlier...sometimes you just have to get professional with Martine otherwise he'll never calm down and act his age," she shook her head.  "It's like adult ADHD, I swear, only he's too stubborn to go get the medicine."  She looked up at me, forcibly blinking a few times just to show me she was human.  "So I'm not normally like that, just felt like I should let you know that."

I nodded, frowning not at her but at the fact that I was in charge of thousands of people.

"Well, I guess I should give you my report," she sighed, saluting me again.  Obviously someone had given her the basics of SeeDs and such, since she seemed to know what she was doing, or at least how to fake it really well.  "GFs are doing more than wreaking havoc upon the Gardens.  They're everywhere.  I mean, not all of them," she shook her head quickly.  "We don't even know how many there are...but some of them are mad, and they're pretty much in all the cities.  On top of this, they've got all those pesky little vermin outside on their side, so the cities are pretty much infested with those little things.  However, I think it's the GFs controlling them...I mean, they kind calmed down after the entire Ultemecia incident," she looked up at me with interest, obviously wondering if all the stories she'd probably heard were true, but didn't press on the subject, "and now they're all worked up again, so I think it might have something to do with the GFs.  I think if we can somehow get the ones at each place defeated, and maybe...I don't know, maybe we could junction them to -something- where they wouldn't cause a problem again..." she trailed off.  "I'm not so sure about any of this, I'm sort of a beginner at the junction system."

I crossed my arms. "The GF Griever... he may still be alive. Griever was junctioned to Ultemecia, but it wasn't just a junction system. Somehow Ultemecia -fused- herself with Griever, and it was pretty scary to see them as one. I don't know if Griever is on a side or anything. I think we need to keep a reasonable amount of SeeD's here, but we need to dispatch small parties of SeeDs to the tows to get rid of the monsters and such, if that's okay with you."

"Right, right," she waved a hand airily.  "I didn't want to be the ones to fight those things anyways.  But, you know, I don't think they can handle the GFs."  She paused, looking to me with a bit of interest.  "...did you always have GFs junctioned to you?  I mean, could you summon without a GF junctioned to you?  Before all this?"

"As far back as I remember... But the terrible thing about GFs... they're in you. They're a part of you, and you have to pay a price for that. They take a little of your memory or a lot, depending on how powerful they are and how much you use them... I was unfortunately too naive to notice this at first, and I've always had the most powerful and memory consuming GFs junctioned to me. I don't remember my time before Garden." I shook my head. "But in any case, I had planned on sending out the highest level SeeDs against the GFs... but I'm hoping we can get some of the GFs back on our side, because my GF, Quetzalcoatl, wasn't just my source of power. He was my friend, and he saved my life more times than I could count. So I was hoping that we could get some back, and not have to fight them."

"I don't know if that's possible," she said quietly, staring out the window.  "I don't think that they're -all- acting of their own accord right now."

"Then we have to destroy the one controlling them as soon as possible."

"I like the way you think," she smiled.  "Question is, which GF is in charge?"

"We'll find that out soon enough." I nodded. "But it's okay that we don't know what to do yet. We've had less than 48 hours to plan."

"We're way ahead of where I expected we'd be.  Of course, I was expecting Headmaster Cid to send some random newbie type SeeD my age who didn't have a clue what they were doing, so I guess I'm just lucky he sent one of his older, more experienced ones."  She paused, and then quickly tagged on, "I'm not calling you old or anything!"  She quickly exclaimed, probably thinking 'I know how old people are about their age and such'...

"I fought Ultemecia, so that does make me sort of experienced, but I'm 19." I said almost irritably.

          She dropped some of the student files she was holding.  Quistis, Irvine, Nida, and my files all landed amongst the other papers.  She quickly scrambled to put them back in order.

"Seriously?" she pulled out my file disbelievingly.  "No way!  You're only, like, a month or three older than me!  I don't believe it!"

I shrugged, helping her pick up the ones she dropped. "Why did you think I was older?"

"Because you don't act like all the other moronic nineteen year old boys I've met," she shook her head, smiling in amusement.  "You're different.  Not in a bad way or anything," she shrugged, looking back down at all the files.  There were a lot there, probably one for every SeeD currently enrolled in all three Gardens.

"Thanks I think. Need any help?"

"Nah, you know most of these people," she smiled weakly.  "I don't, so I guess I'd best get learning.  There's only like, maybe three people out of all of these I know..." she laughed a little.  "And yet I'm supposed to help you make decisions that involve these people's life, and I don't have a clue about them.  I've got a lot ahead of me."

I couldn't help but feel sympathetic. "Don't feel bad. I'll only been in charge once before, and I didn't even -try- to do that..."

"Well, whatever you did last time obviously worked," she smiled.  She picked up a black bag and put as many files as she could hold in it.  "I'm worried about this, yes, but I have confidence we'll be able to pull this off, even with inexperienced me helping you.  I'm sure we'll figure out what to do in no time," she stood up.  "I'll be in the cafeteria memorizing files.  Just call if you need anything," she walked off.

          I sighed. For some reason people having confidence in me was worse. If no one had faith in me, it wasn't gonna be living heck if I failed. If people trusted me like this, and I let them down... they'd hate me.  Forever.


	3. Chapter III

Chapter 3

          It's impossible to get a completely peaceful sleep at Balamb.  I don't know why I try anymore. The announcement system came to life in the morning, much earlier than I would have ever cared to hear from it.

"Um, is this thing on?  Could Commander Leonhart kinda come to the office?  If it's not too much trouble and he's not too busy?  Um, thanks!"  There was some rattling of papers.  "Cruds, is this thing off even?  Hello?  Oh, man, it's on!  Which button turns it off?!?  Sorry, guys!  Is it this one?" there was a click as she finally turned it off.

…Not the way I would have chosen to wake up in the morning. I smacked my forehead, rolling out of bed and wondering if that was how I would wake up every morning for the rest of my life. I went to the office, hoping she hadn't tried to page me again.

          She stood in the office, pacing around nervously.  She saluted me as I entered.

"Ready to report, sir," she nodded.

"At ease!" I said, exasperated. "Go ahead."

"The GFs Alexander and Cerberus have pretty much flattened Winhill," she said as she stepped into the at-ease position.  "Um, I've got the death/injury count around here somewhere if you're interested in that..." she trailed off.  "We probably ought to do something before the other cities end up like this one.  Also, Cid and Martine had Galbadia Garden fly to Esthar today...we needed more supplies...it's back now, anyways, but it was attacked by about three GFs on the way up there.  Nobody ever figured out which ones they were or anything, though.  The Garden got damaged a little, but it's okay.  Um..." she paused, thinking intently.  "I think that's it as for that happened last night..."

I frowned. "So much damage already... I want to go examine Winhill."

          I knew that that was where Laguna and Raine used to live, and I didn't know if Laguna was still there or not. I don't know why I was so afraid for him... he drove me up the wall and he was a moron, but still...

"When I do, which'll be after we send out the parties, then I'm gonna leave you in charge, okay?"

          The look on her face obviously said 'No' but she nodded anyways.

"Yes, sir," she nodded.

"If you don't want to," I said, "then I'll stay here. I just wanted to check on someone, but I guess that's what computers are for."

"No, if you want to go that's just fine," she nodded.  "You're in charge, you know what's best."

"No... I was going for a selfish reason." I sighed, talking more to myself than to her. "I was only going to check on Laguna, but obviously the moron's still alive today, he's made it through stuff no one else could, so he'll be fine."

"Commander, seriously," she shook her head.  "I think you should go if you want to.  Just because you're in charge of all of us doesn't mean you're no longer a human being with your own needs.  If you want to go check on him, I'll round up Xu and Quistis to help me out and we'll manage until you get back."

"I don't need to." I shouldn't care. "He hates it there, so maybe he wasn't even there."

"Whatever you want to do," she shrugged.  "Like I said, you're in charge, but don't forget to take care of yourself while you're at it.  You're still important too."

          With that being said, she pulled out a file on some student even I hadn't heard of and started reading.

          When it came to Garden, the needs of one person opposed to the needs of hundreds were trivial. That was just one of the things about being in charge... The lives of others depended on you. I brushed my hair out of my face before wondering what to do next. I pulled out my notebook that I used for pretty much everything and started planning out parties of SeeDs to go to the cities.

"Um, Commander?" she looked up from her seat in the floor.  "Permission to ask a question?"

"Sayaki, two things. Please call me Squall. You don't owe me any respect. And another thing, you just told me that I'm human. So are you. You don't have to have permission to ask me a question. That's just a human right. It would be like me telling someone never to be curious."

"Um, are you going to send parties of just regular SeeDs to fight the GFs?"

"Whaddya mean regular SeeDs? I'm sending out at least semi-experienced fighters to protect the cities from the monsters, but the higher leveled ones will be against the GFs."

"Okay," she said quietly, staring at the ground.  She stood up, putting some of the files up and pulling out some more.

"Why?"

"It doesn't matter.  I'm not in charge," she shook her head. 

"But that doesn't mean you don't have the right to voice opinions."

"I think if you're going to send out SeeDs to fight these GFs, then I don't think they're going to come back," she said quietly.  "We're not sure what we're up against even.  Well, at least they're not or anything.  I mean, they've summoned, but they've never fought what they're up against, have they?  I mean, I know you do sometimes, because...well, never mind, but you know what I'm trying to say, right?  I just don't think it's a good idea..."

"It's not like I was planning on sending them out immediately. We have to gather data and train before we can even try to make a move against them. I know now that we don't have a chance..."

"I don't think we have a chance, period," she shook her head.  "Okay, think really quickly.  Did you ever fight any GFs before they would join you?"

"Yeah."

"When you finally depleted them of all their health, did they ever actually die?"

"...No."

"So if we send SeeDs out to fight them, and they do defeat them, then what's going to happen?  Well, the GFs won't die.  They might let themselves get junctioned to the SeeDs, only so that the head-GF or whatever can just unjunction them, therefore not only undoing all of their work, but hurting us in the process.  Do you see what I'm saying?"

I nodded. She'd just given me a lot to think about.

"...So we're in a lose-lose situation."

"I wouldn't go that far," she smiled brightly.  "I've still got an idea...I've just gotta do a little more research.  I don't wanna screw up or anything," she shook her head.

"But do you think it's okay for me to send out SeeDs to fight off the monsters in towns? I dunno what else to do to stop them..."

"Yeah, that's a good idea.  Just tell them to keep away from the GFs."

"Alright." I frowned in concentration. If I could get Quetzalcoatl back but not junction him to me, maybe I could somehow keep him on our side.

"Um, how much spare time do you have on your hands?"

"Enough. Why?" I asked suspiciously.

          She reached into her bag and pulled out a textbook that looked as if it would fall apart if I even touched it.  It was old enough that the title once printed on it had worn off, making it hard to tell what it was about.

"Be very careful with this," she warned me.  "You might want to read some of this if you have time.  This is the history they don't teach in schools anymore," she grinned deviously.  "Little too violent, I guess, not to mention we're all lead down the road that GFs love us and are good, this world is perfect."  She smiled sadly.  "Shame everything we know is just fragments of an illusion we're all forced to believe...anyway, here's a bit of truth to brighten your day.  Not that it's a very happy book or anything," she shrugged, handing it to me. "This might explain a lot and help us out."

I nodded. The book was probably as faded on the inside as it was on the outside, but I figured I would understand the gist of things. "Thanks." I said, sliding down and leaning against the wall. I wanted to read it then, but I had to get together parties.

"I think when you form these parties, each one should have one of these people in them," she held out Zell, Rinoa, Irvine, Quistis, and Selphie's file.  "If they want to, that is, because if they're not willing to fight then they're worthless in battle.  But they seem to be our strongest, so maybe one of them mixed with other strong SeeDs, y'know..." she shook her head.  "It's hard for me to even guess on such like this.  I have no idea what I'm doing," she sighed.

"To not know what you're doing you're really good at this." I said simply. "I'll see if they would lead the parties." I didn't want to face Rinoa. I laughed bitterly to myself. Well, one way of getting her to go was putting Seifer in her party.

          I could feel Sayaki looking up at me with concerned eyes, but she didn't say anything for a moment.

"If you want me to help so we can get it done faster, I will," she offered from her seat on the floor.

"...If you want to. But there are some things that I just have to face for myself." I shook my head sadly.

          She looked up at me curiously, but said nothing.

"Well, whatever you want me to do," she shrugged, pulling out a folder holding more papers than it could probably stand and a hi-lighter, starting to read over them.

          I retreated behind my notebook again, but my pen didn't move. I was thinking everything over. Again. I had done that a lot in the past few days. But that wasn't the time to resolve personal issues like Rinoa. This was my responsibility, the position that Cid had given me.

"Whatever."

          She ignored that comment.

"So, tell me about yourself," she said as she thumbed through the papers.

"Whaddya wanna know? There's nothing much to tell."

"Well, I don't know much about you," she shrugged.  "I mean, I just now figured out you're 19, I know you're Commander Squall Leonhart, and I know you're a SeeD, and I know you saved the world and all that jazz, but I don't know anything about ya, like what you're interested in and the like."

"As a SeeD, I really don't have much of a life outside fighting. I mean, I train on my spare time, and read occasionally, but... like I said, I'm not that interesting." I kept my notebook between us as I spoke.

"Fascinating," she mumbled.  "Can't even see ya...so you don't really do anything?  No wasting your time in Balamb with your friends, no world traveling on that nice red spaceship thingy sitting outside?  Just fighting?"

"My friends... I guess I would call them friends. I fought with them for a while, but I never really got that close to them." And the one I did doesn't give a care. "I don't travel, either. Like I said, I gave up my life to become a good mercenary."

"Sheesh, Commander.  I'm a mercenary too...a little less professional, of course, and less trained too...but I do make time out for me," she shrugged. 

"Time out is just more time to think about things that you don't want to."

          She looked up at me, a kind of surprised look on her face.

"Well we'll see about that," she shrugged.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

          She stood up, smiling.

"You honestly think spending time with people is just a way to be miserable?  You honestly need to come see the light."

"How can a blind man see?" I put down my notebook and stared at the floor, as if hoping it would have the answers of life written on it. "I've always been this way. That's who I am."

          She walked over and knelt down in front of me, reaching out and tilting my face up where I was looking directly into her pinkish-violet eyes.

"When I was five I wasn't really that interested in people either.  I would have preferred to sit around reading.  But we all have to grow up sometime or another."

"This isn't just a phase. This is me. Take that away, and you have no one. You have a trained fighter. I _thought_ I was some one else. But I was proved wrong."

"You're miserable," she shook her head.  "That's definitely not the way it's supposed to be."

"There's no other way."

"What makes you so certain of that?"

"There was a way that turned me into someone, and I was so happy. But it turns out that it was all a lie... there's nothing left for happiness for me."

"Squall, you're nineteen years old.  You've still got your entire life ahead of you.  I don't know what happened, but I'm sure something will come along to replace the space that the pain's occupying right now."

"What until then?"

"You search for whatever that thing is," she said in a matter-of-fact voice. 

"How can I look for something when I dunno what it is?"

"You'll know when you find it."

"...Okay." I kept my voice steady even though hundreds of things were rushing through me all at once. I was getting used to that awful feeling.

"Do you honestly want to sit around here and read papers?" she stood up again.  "I'm not accomplishing anything here, so I don't know about you, but this vice-commander's gonna go for a ride in the big spaceship."  She quickly saluted me.  "Seeking permission, of course," she said impatiently.

"...Of course. Do you want company?"

"I wouldn't object to it," she shrugged.  "I'm gonna go see what kinda GFs we're up against."

"Okay." I put my notebook and pen in the corner. I wouldn't need them. I didn't want to have to write down my thoughts or plan parties. I wanted to try and get a life outside Garden like Sayaki had said.

"Alrighty!" she beamed.  "Well, I'm definitely out of here..." she looked down at the SeeD uniform Martine had given her.  "I don't know why he wanted me in one of these.  I'm not a SeeD.  You know, I don't think anyone knows that, though.  I think he's got 'em thinking I'm a SeeD that way they won't get mad or anything...I guess I'd probably get mad if some person who didn't even know what my life was like came in and was suddenly helping lead me..." she shrugged.  "I'll meet you at the red-dragon-spaceship-airplane-thingy?"

"Sure. I'll be there in a minute." ...I was gonna see if Rinoa would fight.

"Okay," she waved, running off.

I went down to the first floor, and the first thing that I saw was Seifer and Rinoa together. I steeled myself and went over to Rinoa.

"To fight against the monsters in the cities I'm dispatching SeeD's, and I thought it was a good idea to include some of our strongest and most experienced SeeDs in the groups. I was wondering if you would want to go." I ignored Seifer completely.

"Congratulations on the leadership position," Rinoa smiled.  "I meant to go and tell you that, but I never got around to it.  Ummm....I guess I'll fight....who all will be in the party with me?  Just wondering..."

"I have to do some research on the files to find which SeeDs are most powerful not only in level but with good defenses -and- offense, things like that." I nodded. "When I figure it out I'll get back to you. I'll see ya around."

"Still can't figure anything out on your own," Seifer snorted.  "What, you gotta run it by that old bat Cid or somethin'?  Teacher's pet."

"Maybe Raijin, Fujin, Seifer and I would make a good party," Rinoa offered.  "Just an idea to hopefully save you some time?"

"I'll consider that." I replied to Rinoa, and then turned to Seifer. "Cid is more powerful than you could be with his hands behind his back, and he actually has a brain. So I suggest you not make a comment about it again." I strode off before either could say another word. My blood boiled at Seifer and my heart ached at the sight of Rinoa with him. How could she hang out with, much less like, the guy who fed her to Adel? I went out to the Ragnarok.

          Sayaki sat in the driver's seat, looking a lot less professional than earlier dressed in jeans and a long sleeved shirt, despite the fact it was summer.  She was twiddling with the joysticks and the steering wheel, looking anxious to go.  I noticed there were a few weapons lying beside her--she'd obviously laid them down so she could drive properly.

"Um, I didn't ask permission, but I left Xu and Quistis in charge, just in case.  I didn't ask permission to drive either," she admitted sheepishly.  "Er, sorry."

"Don't be. You don't have to ask permission for things like that... okay?" My anger was already abating, and I was actually looking forward to the ride in the Ragnarok. I only rode on it when I had to, but... this was different.

"You don't get airsick do you?" she asked teasingly, starting it up.  "I've always wanted to drive one of these things!  Hope the air cops or whatever don't pull us over...I'm not licensed to drive something this big," she shrugged.  "But I have practiced, so I don't think I'll crash or anything.  No worries."

I smiled. "Okay then." I kept my gunblade in my hands even when I sat down, because I had learned while on the mission to defeat Ultemecia that I had to be ready at all times.

"You're not...gonna...um, attack me are you?" she glanced over at me nervously, purple eyes shining from underneath her long white bangs.  "Cause if you kill me, I will crash and...um...."

I laughed. "Of course I'm not gonna attack you. As long as you're on our side." I smiled jokingly.

          She looked up, a little surprised, then smiled.

"You laughed," she smiled as she stared ahead, driving quite well.  "You should do that more often.  You should smile and laugh both more than you do."

"I'll try that." I said.

          It felt like ages since I'd laughed, I realized, and the last time I had was when Rinoa and I had just arrived back in Garden after I had been trapped in time compression. Just_ thinking_ about time compression bothered me... no one would ever understand why I had issues with time compression. I didn't think that anyone else had ever been in it, and I was glad no one else had to go through that.

"You alright?" she looked over at me, concerned.

"Yeah..." I shook my head. "Just thinking."

"Well, I'll listen if you feel like speaking," she shrugged, occasionally glancing at a map to see where our location was.

I hesitated. I hardly knew her, yet I was debating whether to tell her about something I hadn't even gotten around to telling Rinoa before she dumped me.

"I've just got a problem with time compression." I smiled embarrassedly. "Stupid, I know, but..."

"Why on earth would that be stupid?" she asked me seriously.

I shook my head. "It's just... I feel like a wimp, being afraid of a place and thing that doesn't exist anymore. Besides, it's nothing to be afraid of I guess. There's nothing there... Nothing but black, gray, and brown space, so there's nothing life-threatening there, but I think the emptiness is ominous."

"I think I'd go crazy if I ever had to spend time in a place like that alone," she shrugged. "I don't think it's wimpy at all to be afraid of that place.  Why would you think that?" she shook her head.

"It's just... Looking back on it, it feels like I shouldn't be so freaked out about it, but... It was so weird. You could keep walking forever and hardly get two feet. There was no time and no space. It was just all crammed together to trap you. It would've taken a million years to get a hundred feet across that place, because no matter how hard or fast you run, it hardly gets you anywhere at all."

          She reached over and squeezed my arm reassuringly.

"I think you're brave to have made it through that place with your sanity still in tact," she said, never taking her eyes off the sky in front of her except to glance at the map.

Rinoa saved me. She was what kept me going, what got me back, and I felt like I'd left a part of myself in time compression.

"...Thank you."

"Anytime," she shrugged.

          ... I didn't know if I would ever be who I was again. That bothered me, but I had learned to ignore it. I was just glad that time compression wasn't a threat anymore. Still... if a person creates a place and they die, it doesn't eliminate the place, so that must've meant that time compression was still there. If it was there, then there could still be someone in it. That thought bothered me more than anything. Someone might be trapped in there, one minute feeling like a thousand years, like I was, but with no one to save them. I wanted to think of anything but time compression, so I attempted to think of something else to occupy my mind.

          Sayaki stared ahead blankly, lost in thought.

"About five minutes and we'll be there," she informed me off-handedly.

"Where are we going in the first place?"

"Shumi Village," she grinned evilly at me.

I raised my eyebrows, unable to think of anything but my time with Gardenmaster NORG.  Even visiting the Shumi Village hadn't been enough to change my opinion of them…I knew it was horrible of me to be so closed-minded about them, but there were just too many things I didn't agree with them on. "To where the crazy people live? And that would be because...?"

"I'm kidding, we're not.  They don't like me much anyway.  We're heading to Deling City."

I nodded, feeling stupid for not looking outside. "Alright."

"Don't be so hard on yourself..."

I had the unnerving feeling she knew what I was thinking. I didn't like it at all. I just nodded to be the safe side.

"There!" she suddenly announced, landing a bit awkwardly but not doing any damage to anything but the tiny tree we landed on.  "Alright, better equip," she mumbled to herself, grabbing the odd assortment of shruikens, throwing knives, and the small gun that was laying beside her.  I kept a firm grip on my weapon, because with all the stupid monsters you never knew....

"Alright, let's see what we're facing," she smiled grimly, hopping out of the Ragnarok and walking towards the city.

          I walked beside her, feeling safer but more idiotically paranoid with my gunblade pulled out. It felt weird not to junction any magic, but the empty space that Quetzalcoatl had made was fading and a few memories were rising to the surface.

          She looked around the area, walking slowly as just to make sure she didn't run into anything unsuspectingly.  She walked over to a person, talked with them for a second, then walked back over to me. 

"Um, if you have anything you want to do you can go do it.  I'm going to go over to the bridge area..."

"Okay." I nodded. "Then when do you want to meet and where?"

"Maybe in...um....thirty minutes?  At...um...the item shop."

"Okay."

          I decided I would get what I needed from the item shop when I met Sayaki. I got a new weapon, seeing as my old one was getting really worn out (I'd had it since the SeeD test, which felt like a lifetime ago), spent about fifteen minutes beating the daylights out of people at Triple Triad. I had so many cards I didn't know what to do with them, and I obviously couldn't use my card refine junction. I simply shoved them in my pocket to store in my stash at Garden.

          I looked at my watch. Three minutes left, and I was on the wrong side of town. I hurried to the item shop right on time, but Sayaki wasn't there. Figuring she might be late like I had almost been, having lost track of time, I stocked up on potions, phoenix down, remedies, and the like, because I knew that there wasn't any magic that was usable. I couldn't even draw. This was gonna drive me crazy if being in charge if garden didn't. I was seriously not having a good feeling about this, and I didn't think of her as the type who would be late, seeing as she seemed to ask permission for every little thing. I ran off to the bridge area, hoping she was okay.

          She was frantically shooting at Siren with a tiny gun, not being able to do much damage with it.  Her main shruiken was stuck in Siren's wing--a place she couldn't easily reach.  She was chanting something at a strange beat, glowing an odd bluish color, and yet looked ready to give up.

          All at once I used a couple potions on her and I limit breaked the GF, furious at it for a reason unknown even to me. All I could figure was that I didn't want it hurting my friend... I assumed I could consider her a friend. I slammed my gunblade down hard on Siren one last time before hurrying back to Sayaki.

"We can't beat it, and we need to get outta here before it can junction itself to us! Are you okay enough to run?"

"No, I've almost got it...I can't leave..." she shook her head, looking up at Siren miserably.  The blue aura disappeared, and she sighed.  "...I can't do anymore.  You're right, let's go..."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm not gonna be if we stick around here much longer!" she said quickly, suddenly running around and charging at Siren, jumping on her and grabbing the thing's harp, using it to reach the wing.  She used her gun to shoot her shruiken out of it, grabbed it, and frantically started dashing off.

"C'mon, Commander, c'mon I bet she's mad now..." she winced, hugging the shruiken and dashing through the crowd, knocking random people over.  "Sorry!  Sorry!  Comin' through, sorry!"

          I ran after her. Obviously she was okay. I slammed the door shut and sunk into the passenger's seat, looking over at Sayaki, frazzled.

          Reminded me of the time I stole that car, and it was even in Deling City.

"Are you okay? I have potions and stuff if you need any..."

"I couldn't do it," she shook her head.  "And I was so close..." she sighed, disappointed.  "Fudge...that just bites.  Huh?  Potions?  No, I'm okay.  I only like the grape-flavored ones anyways," she shrugged.  "The rest I can't even stand."

          I smiled at her, amazed that she _cared_ what kind of potion saved her life. It didn't really matter to me, because I didn't like any flavors in particular, and also as long as it worked I was happy.

"What were you doing to Siren?"

"I've done my studying," she's sighed.  "Okay, I'll basically tell you everything in that book I loaned you.  You can go ahead and read it anyway for more information, but I'll give you the basics of it.  Back a long time ago, before any of us were ever even thought of, GFs ruled this world.  However, we humans didn't like their rule.  I mean, it was pretty much peaceful, but some of the GFs made crappy kings and the like.  So the humans decided to take over.  The thing about a GF is you can't kill them, 'cause they're kind of immortal, y'know?  Um...so how do I put this...they sealed them away using a special spell.  It wasn't really magic, it was more like...I don't know, an art, I guess you could say.  This put the GFs in a place where they could survive," she paused, staring at the ground, then back out the window.  "Time compression.  Time compression was created for the GFs.  But don't freak out or anything, 'cause it's different for them!  It was harder for you 'cause you were just a mortal and all, but they're immortal, so it's no problem for them to exist in this place.  But since they're so strong, they get released every ten thousand odd years or so.  Well, this time when they got released, the people had lost the old spell or whatever you want to call it that seals them back away.  Instead of sealing them, the people allowed the GFs to junction themselves to them.  Now that the GFs have regained power, they kind of want their rule back, y'know?  Some of us still know that old spell thing...I'm one of those people.  It's like magic, only its not...magic is selective about who can use it.  This power isn't.  It's available for anyone who wants to learn it.  And we have to use this power to send the GFs back to where they came from, otherwise..." she shook her head.  "It was different then, when GFs and people lived in peace.  Now they're kinda picked off at us for leaving them in time compression for a millennia...so...I was using that spell against Siren to try and send her back to where she belongs," she explained.     

Suddenly a lot of things clicked into place all at once.

"...So _anyone_ can learn?"

"Anyone.  Especially nineteen year old Commanders with brown hair and greyish eyes and gunblades who would probably find this art very useful in their adventures."

"Would you teach me then?" I couldn't help but smile at her.

"Gladly," she grinned.  "But, uh, not on the dragon-spaceship-airplane-thingy.  I can't teach and drive at the same time.  Quoting long boring textbooks is the most I can do while driving.  Anything else and I crash."

"Alright." I nodded at her. "Thanks."

"Anytime, Commander," she beamed.

"Will you -please- call me Squall? This isn't formal or anything."

          She blinked a few times, looking over to me.

"I'll think about it," she winked.

I rolled my eyes but smiled all the same. "Alright."

Notes: Guys, if you liked it, please review!  The more reviews I get the more I can convince Selphie that we need to redraft chapter 6 or whatever chapter it was I wanted to redraft -  Not to mention that reviews are nice…

So I'd like to thank our two reviewers so far - I'll mention your names in the next chapter because I can only remember one of the names and I don't want anyone to feel left out.  Also because for some reason I can't re-access the page…so many thanks to our reviewers!  Join them, please, hehe -

Well, I'd post Chapter Four but 'Law and Order' is on, which has gotta be the best non-anime, non-cartoon, non-game TV show ever, so I'd best go watch it.  Hope you're liking it!

Oh yeah, and here's just something for fun, since it's commercialling right now -  This is a duet project between me and Sefie Lynne…my biggest goal was to make it sound like only one writer, but I'm far from good at this so you probably can tell that's it's two of us…in any case, can you guess which characters are mine and which ones are Sefie's?  (I just wanna see if it's really obvious -)

Ack…no more rambling.  .  Love and peace,

Xifa and Sefie Lynne 


	4. Chapter IV

Chapter Four

I trudged up to the office the next morning without being told because I knew that I would get paged again, and even the simple idea of this didn't really appeal to me much. I opened the door and smiled tiredly. It was way too early for any sane person to be up, but here I was anyways…

"Good morning, Commander Leonhart!" Sayaki smiled cheerfully.  "Martine and Cid went away today!  No SeeD uniform for me! Yeah!" she was reading through files with interest.

"Good morning Sayaki." I smiled. "Whatcha doing?"

"Reading through the file of Sei-fer Al-ma-sy," she struggled to get the name right but managed to screw it up anyway.  "I had no idea you could get in trouble this much without being expelled!"

"He's a... an idiot." I struggled to keep myself from calling him something I shouldn't. "And a jerk." I added.

"I'll cover my ears if you wanna call him something else," she offered.  "Anyways, who is this guy anyway?  Apparently he's in detention all the time...wow...that's a lot of detentions...I don't even think I've been alive that many days..."

I grinned, laughing. "He's definitely a moron. He's always been sorta like an archenemy of mine. What is mine he wants, and what he can't have fairly he steals." I got serious. "He helped Ultemecia rise to power."

"Seriously?" she looked up.  "Wow...I guess that's back here on page 294 somewhere..."

"That doesn't surprise me... his file is probably twice as thick as any dictionary. I dunno how the scum got back in Garden after that..."

"Wow, I take it you really don't like him," Sayaki lifted an eyebrow.

"Absolutely not." I shook my head. "He's just... I dunno... imagine the biggest jerk you know and think about 20 times worse and add a huge ego problem, and you get Seifer."

"Sheesh..." she trailed off, shaking her head.  "Well...you up for learning this?"

I nodded. "If it'll get things back to normal, definitely."

"I...was thinking about teaching the other students this, but..." she shook her head.  "It's a dangerous weapon.  When used incorrectly, it can hurt more than just GFs...it can hurt people too.  And when you chant the words, if you get the wrong beat or anything..." she sighed.  "It is like a gun that shoots at both the enemy and at you if you pull the trigger at the wrong speed.  So even though it would help for the other students to know it, I don't think it's such a good idea for me to teach them.  Just for safety.  Even you've gotta be really careful when learning it, that's why we'll practice it before we actually use it."  She warned me.

          And for the next few hours we recited words I'd never heard of, much less translate, to certain rhythms.  She wouldn't let me stop until I'd perfected it. That was kinda hard, considering I only knew plain English. It was like learning a new language in 3o minutes... but I knew it would be worth it.

"Do I have it yet?" I asked.

"Pretty much," she nodded.  "The thing you just have to remember the most is that it's more the rhythm than the words.  Saying it too fast or too slow can cause major problems.  Stupid ancient Trabians...they have to make everything harder than it should be," she sighed.  "Just make sure that and you've pretty much got it.  Follow me, um, please," she said, standing up and walking outside.

"Okay." I was worried about remembering the rhythm, but I would probably get over it... I hoped.

"Now when we do this for real, it won't be such a big deal because I'll be doing this with you," she said.  "But I'm gonna have you practice by yourself first just to see how you're doing.  This works with monsters too.  It doesn't, uh, send 'em to time compression, but it kills 'em, which is good enough.  But for this spell to work on -anything-, you have to get rid of most of its health."  She blinked, looking at me.  "I think one hit from you will kill this bite bug so..."  She fired a few shots at it from her gun.  "Okay, now try using it on it!  Mess up and you're stuck with three more hours of me, get it right and I'll leave you alone the rest of the day," she grinned.

"Empty threat." I shrugged and started before she could say anything else. It was harder than it seemed, and I was nervous, but apparently I'd gotten the hang of it, 'cause I didn't do good but I didn't mess up either.

          It fell to the ground, dead.

"Excellent," Sayaki commented proudly.  "Now when we fight the GFs, we might have to repeat it a few times.  Just go until it dies.  That was really good for your first time!  I ended up KO-ing my instructor the first time I tried.  Luckily I still had magic back then, so I was able to bring him back."  She paused.  "There are a lot of other things you can do with this magic, like summon without junctioning and the like, but the GF has to be willing to help you.  I could summon Bahamut Zero at any given time, although I never junctioned him to me.  I could use it's abilities and everything, but I can't now that this has all happened.  So there isn't really any need for me to teach you that branch of this magic," she shrugged.  "If the situation ever arises where we'd need it, which according to legend it never will in our lifetimes after we seal all the GFs away, I'll teach you, but yeah.  In any case," she shrugged.  "You did that just fine, so you get the rest of the day off.  Great job," she smiled, walking back into the Garden.

I followed her, hesitating to see if she'd stop me. "Ya need any help in the office or anything?"

          She looked back at me, a slightly miserable expression on her face.

"Seeking permission to take the rest of the day off too, sir," she pleaded.

"As long as you don't call me sir." I smiled, and then frowned. "Are you okay?"

"I'm exhausted.  I've spent the last two weeks in an office memorizing student files and I just don't wanna do it anymore.  I'll work twice as hard tomorrow to make up for it if you just let me have the rest of the afternoon off, please."

"Sayaki, whenever you need a break, don't hesitate to take one, okay? And it's not your job to memorize files. There must be thousands of students in the Gardens. No one could ever do that. If you're still tired tomorrow, then take off then to. I want you to feel better, alright?"

"You're too nice to this worthless vice-commander," she smiled sadly.  "Thank you, in any case," she smiled, retreating to the dorms.

I smiled and went down to the cafeteria, even though some of their food tasted like cardboard.

"Hey, man!" Zell plopped down in front of me.  "How's our entire GF-fight goin'?  We makin' any progress?"

"I just got a little further, but I have a lot to research... There's a textbook thing I have to read with some information I need." I smiled tiredly.

"Well that's definitely good.  How's your life going?"

"I'm alive." I shrugged. "Yours?"

"Yeah, it's pretty good," Zell nodded.  "We don't see too much of ya anymore....'slike you live in that office.  Is it that interestin' up there?" he grinned.

"I guess. I mean, sometimes it's really annoying, but I've sort of... I guess I've learned something about myself." I said thoughtfully.

"What did ya learn?"

"It's like... I dunno, I've learned who I really am again... I've learned how to be happy again." I myself, who was apparently to busy to notice anything, realized just then that I had started enjoying my time up in the office. I found myself smiling and laughing a lot more than I ever had before...

"Well I dunno where y'learned it from, but I'm glad y'did, man.  We were all startin' to worry about ya."

That was what friends were for. I had great friends under my nose the entire time, and I hadn't realized it.... Stupid, stupid Squall....

"Thanks." I smiled.

"So, um, I've got a question...is it true that there's a co-commander from Galbadia who's actually the granddaughter-in-law of Ultemecia who's threatening to kill us all working with you?"

"Rumors are so stupid in this place." I rolled my eyes. "There's a co-commander, yes, but I know very well she has no relation to Ultemecia and has nothing against us. Her name is Sayaki. She's actually quite nice."

"Guess you'd know that very well too, y'know, after all that time in the office, eh?" Zell arched an eyebrow, trying not to laugh.

"Oh shuddup." I smiled.

"Aha.  I see why it's kinda fun stayin' up there, eh?"

"Zell..." Now that I thought about it, the office would be pretty dull without her. I definitely wasn't looking forward to the next day, assuming she would take off. "Well... hey, she's nice, is there anything wrong with that?"

"Nope, man, not at all," he shook his head happily.  "She the one with the reaaaaallllllyyyyy long hair?  The one with all the files who's always reading something??"

"Yeah." I smiled. Like she said, she had always liked reading, but I didn't think she meant files.

"Hm..." Zell nodded.  "I've seen her a few times.  She's always stressing about something.  I told her to get a hot dog, it'd make her feel better.  She didn't laugh, though, which was kinda surprising since most people do.  They just don't understand," he shook his head. "She did take my advice, though, so she can't be that bad."

I laughed. "It's sad that it takes getting a cafeteria hotdog to get on your good side, Zell..."

"Oh, geeze, don't make me sound so stupid."

"Sorry." I dug through my pockets for my lunch ticket, which was in the pocket I looked in last.

"Aw, no problemo," he shrugged, then grinned.  "Soooooo, I take it you're gettin' to be pretty good 'friends' with this girl."

"And you're not with Quistis?" I smiled evilly at him. If he tortured me, I could torture him back.

"That's not what I asked."

"You didn't ask a question."

"That's not the topic I started."

"Then what do you want me to answer?"

"Nuffin," Zell stood up, smiling.  "I'll figure it out in my own good time...'course next thing you know the rumor'll be that the co-commander's actually an alien from the lunar cry and is attempting to pull Commander Squall's brains out, so yeah..."

"Hey, don't resort to rumors! I'll answer ya, okay?!"

"Oh c'mon, you not into hearing things through the SeeD grapevine around here?  It's always more interesting this way."

"It's definitely more bull than truth." I replied.

"I'd say," Zell laughed.  "Dang...some of it's just so funny though...yesterday I heard the Trepies were planning on taking over Galbadia too and appointing Quisty in charge of us all, so yeah..."

I laughed. "And you wouldn't mind, wouldja?"

"Nah, I don't want her in charge.  Probably too stressful and I wouldn't know what to say to make her feel better," he shrugged.  "The Trepies plot my death as we speak.  Just consult any of the main gossipers.  'Course, I just might believe that..."

I grinned at him, shaking my head. "Gossipers are just trying to cover things up about themselves, so... yeah..."

"Well, speaking of things that are true..." Zell smiled.  "You met any of the Ghosties yet?"

I raised my eyebrows in amusement. "So Quistis isn't the only one with groupies? Now Sayaki has 'em too?"

"Yeah...they're from Galbadia, so they're the Trepies arch-rivals.  It's hilarious.  They finally met Ghost or whatever her name is...Sayaki, right?....well, they met her about an hour ago.  They were all like, 'I'm your biggest fan!  You're doing great!'  And she just stared at them and practically killed herself just trying to politely get away.  It was hilarious.  They chased her back to her dorm.  Maybe they'll plot your death next."

I rolled my eyes. "That's what the vice-president system is for..." I said more to myself than to Zell, because he was fortunate enough not to know what I was thinking.

"Okay?" he looked a little confused, but said nothing.  "Ah, well, here comes Quisty...I'll talk to ya later, okay man?  Don't stay up in the office too long and forget about us," he grinned.

I smiled. "See ya Zell."

          I got up and walked away, not even being able to identify the weird feeling that seemed to be washing over me. Zell looked so happy with Quistis, and I was glad they were happy together, but... All the feelings that I had originally when Cid forced me into the job bubbled to the top again. Who was I kidding? Sayaki had probably had enough of me, and besides, she probably had a boyfriend. Another thing was that my heart still belonged to Rinoa, and it seemed that every time I saw her with Seifer that the knife dug a little deeper.

          I was barely aware of locking my dorm door and sinking down on my bed. I was alone, and it was stupid of me to think otherwise. I leaned back against the wall. Thinking back, I didn't remember a time when I wasn't an outcast. For a while I thought I had Rinoa, but I don't. There wasn't anything left for me. I knew that, and when I closed my eyes it felt almost as bad as time compression. But in time compression, I still had hope. I had Rinoa. Now she was gone...

          I stared at my gunblade like I had done just a few weeks ago. The feelings were stronger now than ever before. The gunblade was looking pretty tempting, yet... I dunno why, but I decided to hold if off, at the most until tomorrow afternoon... I nodded, not really knowing what to do and sitting down with the textbook Sayaki had let me borrow. I had nothing better to do, and it was better than letting my mind wander back to Rinoa and Seifer. That pretty much took the rest of my day, and at about eleven I turned off the lights and tried to get some sleep.

a/n: I swear it will get more interesting next chapter…I promise…all this was just to finally get to the storyline, and I hope you all like it so far…please review if you do, because I kind of need Sefie's help to redraft some of these chapters and the more reviews we get the more likely she is to want to help -  Knowing my luck she's gonna come read this and totally kill me if I ever get to see her again .  Stupid exams that I'm supposed to be studying for right now…

          …thanks to Valec and Ultrabeing…gosh…I can't remember how to spell your names and my sister just stole the papers I wrote it down on!  Well, your nicknames will just be V and U now since I can most definitely remember how to spell those.  Anyways, thanks for the reviews and go read their stories.  I can't remember if V's written any (???) but I know U has and the one I read was good so go read it.  Whoo!  …y'guys don't mind me calling you that, do you? …ah well.

          Anyways, I pick a bad time to type these up since Law and Order comes on in precisely three minutes and I don't wanna miss the beginning of it this time so…hope you all enjoyed the chapter and the next one will DEFINITELY be better! I promise!  Seriously!

Love and Peace,

Xifa and Sefie Lynne

Oh yeah, and we still don't own FF8.  But I did by a used copy of it, and one of these days I'm gonna buy the strategy guide so I can get to watch all the scenes I missed.  Go Squenix!


	5. Chapter V

Chapter Five

I sat in the office in my corner the next morning, finishing off the book with my gunblade equipped. Reading was the only escape from my own thoughts.  I only wished I could read forever.

          Sayaki wandered in a little later than usual, looking a little frazzled.

"Sorry, I'm late!" she quickly saluted me.  She looked as if she'd just woken up.  Her still wet hair was messily braided instead of neatly like it normally was, and she kept rubbing her eyes even though she was supposed to be standing in attention.

"S'okay." I closed the book.  "Thanks for letting me borrow this."

"Anytime," she smiled.  "Everything kind of makes a lot more sense after reading it, yeah?"

I nodded. Everything GF related.

"I'm glad it helped you," she grinned.  "I think I'm done memorizing student files.  I still don't know anything about anyone and I think I'll survive that way.  So, until you give me the next order, methinks I'm gonna clean this place up!"  she held a swiffer duster and a swiffer mop. 

"Need some help?" Might as well do something useful.  Maybe it would divert my thoughts too…

"If you want to," she laid the mop down.  "You don't have to if you don't want to."  She pulled up Cid's chair and started dusting the tops of the bookshelves, sneezing.  "You could _grow_ things in this dust!"

I nodded, forcing a smile, and doing anything I could think of to help.

          The place was finally completely spotless.  Sayaki grinned happily.

"I'm so happy!  I can focus in a place that's this clean!"

"That's better." I said approvingly and shoved my hands in my pockets.

"Thanks for helping me," she beamed. 

"Welcome."

          She sat down with a library book on GFs, thumbing impatiently through it, looking much like a child who was only doing their homework because they were forced to.  I sat down in my corner, not really knowing what to do. There wasn't really anything -to- do.

"Squall, do you feel okay?"

"I'm alright." I shrugged.

"...um, okay," she nodded.  "I was just, um, kinda worried about ya..."

I looked over at her. She didn't even know that I had planned suicide, yet she was worried about me. How could she know...?

"Because you seem really sad," she added on.  "And, I mean, I know we all have our bad days, but...it just seems like something's really bothering you."

-Everything's- bothering me, Sayaki... I closed my eyes and stood up. "I forgot some papers in the dorms... I've gotta go get 'em."

"Alrighty, see you in a minute then," she nodded, turning the page absent-mindedly.

          I didn't reply, because I knew I wouldn't. I made my way back to the dorms where no one was during the day. I shut my door, not bothering to lock it. Who would be down here at this time of day anyway? I grabbed my gunblade, and I realized my hand was shaking. I had to do this quick, because I didn't want it to be painful. I aimed my gun at my head, my hand unsteady on the trigger.  Was this the right choice?  Was this the right choice? 

          The door flung open, and a shruiken knocked the gun out of my hands and away from me.

"Don't do anything stupid!" Sayaki cried out.  "I swear, if you go for that I don't know what I'll do!"

"Why?" I asked blankly. It didn't really matter anyway.

"Oh, Squall, no no...don't...please don't...." she walked in, and frantically reached for my gunblade.  "I'm not gonna give it back to you!"

"Please just give it to me so I can get this over with."

"No!" she said, voice shaking.  "No, I won't let you do this.  I won't.  I won't let you do this," she repeated again, shaking her head frantically. 

"This isn't like it's gonna effect you." I shook my head.

"Not gonna effect me?!"  she swore under her breath, the first time I'd ever herd her do so.  "Are you insane?!"

"I honestly don't know at this point." I sighed. "Just give me the gunblade, Sayaki."

          She said nothing, but simply clung to my gunblade tighter, dissolving into tears. 

"What's wrong?" I asked, concerned for her.  That was the first time I'd ever seen her cry, too…even when she'd been hurt, she hadn't cried, but now it was as if she'd just completely lost it…

"Don't you see this?!  Please don't leave me alone in this place..." she shook her head.  "And if you've gotta go, don't kill yourself...please...suicide isn't the answer, it only hurts everyone!"

"How could it hurt?"

"It does," she said bitterly.  "Mom left me this way, and I'm not gonna let anyone else do the same thing to me ever again!"

"Sayaki, you don't understand---"

"--YOU don't understand!" she yelled.  "What on earth don't _I_ understand?!  Life sucks and I know that!  I've been there!  But there isn't any reason to ever kill yourself!  If you're at the worst point in your life then it can only get better!"

"Sayaki, I've waited for how many years now? And it never gets better. It's not gonna get better."

"Please don't give up yet.  Please...I'll make it better!  I promise!  I'll make it better somehow or another, just please don't go..."

"Sayaki..." I smiled sadly. I felt like I'd never be happy again. "You can't promise that. You can't control fate... Besides, all this'll do is get me out of your way. You should be happy about this. I can't be that important."

"Well, guess what," She scowled angrily, yet I could detect something beyond that anger, just slightly out of view. "You are."

I sank down on my bed. "Why's it even matter?" I closed my eyes.

          Sayaki slid my gunblade across the floor out of my reach, and then dropped to her knees in front of me. She reached out and her hands closed around mine, and I seemed to find a slight glimmer of hope too faint to grasp.

"Look, I admit there's a lot about you I don't know. There's stuff that's probably happened to you that I can't even begin to understand. But that's not a reason to give up. It matters to me... it matters to me a lot, Squall... if it didn't matter, I wouldn't be here right now, okay?"

          I looked up at her, and inside I felt she was right. Everything was gonna be okay... and I wasn't alone.

"I'm sorry... this was so stupid of me..."

"It's not... I just... I just wanted you to be okay... I don't know what I can do... I just want you to be okay again..." She stared down at the floor.

"I'm okay." I nodded, laying my hand on Sayaki's shoulder. "I know that there's no need to resort to that... I know I have a friend."

"Please... just... there are better things to resort to. Please... just... don't do that again..." She was still staring at the floor.

"I won't."

"Promise?" she finally looked up, and her violet-pink eyes locked onto mine. It struck me that she was really pretty suddenly.

"Promise." I replied.

"Thank you." she nodded, standing up. She handed my gunblade back to me, and now I was disgusted with the thought of my suicide attempt. "Sorry I kind of panicked... I didn't know what to think or do..."

I almost gave her a hug, but I stopped before I did.

"You have nothing to be sorry for." I said softly. "You saved my life."

"I was almost too late," she looked away, an upset expression on her face. 

I shook my head.

"... How did you know?"

"Squall, I'm not stupid," she frowned, shaking her head quickly.  "I wasn't exactly sure what you were gonna do, but I could tell it wasn't gonna be good."

"I'm sorry... I really screwed up..."

"I won't lie to you," she shook her head.  "You're right, you did, but that's okay," she nodded.  "We all get second chances.  And because if you know you're wrong, you won't make the same mistake again.  And that's good."

"Thank you for stopping me..."

"You're welcome," she nodded.

          I didn't know what to do, but it wasn't a bad awkwardness. It was how I'd felt around Rinoa sometimes. I realized suddenly that even though I _did _still love her, I wouldn't be happy unless she was, and she obviously wasn't happy with me. And that was okay, because I wasn't as alone as I'd thought.

a/n: We don't own FF8, and we don't own swiffer, although I have a swiffer mop and a swiffer duster and they've saved me tons of time when cleaning.  Try 'em out sometime.

    …no Law and Order tonight so I'll get to checking up chapter six soon.  Was this chapter okay?  I think this is where it really starts going so, I hope you like it…really, I do…I really have fun writing this story and I really hope that some people like it…so…if you liked it and want to review, the button's right down there - 

Love and peace,

Xifa and Sefie Lynne


	6. Chapter VI

Ghost of a Good Thing

By: Sefie Lynne Tilmitt and Xifa

…Still don't own the characters, still don't own Squenix, technically don't even own the title.  Just the idea, Sayaki, and any other OCs you see wandering the area.

Onto chapter six!

Chapter Six

"Um, good morning students, SeeDs, administrators, faculty, and anyone else I've forgotten...I'm supposed to tell you all that lunch tickets are on sale half-price today, the Garden Festival Committee's next meeting has been postponed until this entire GF incident is out of the way but they're still looking for new members, and anyone who had over twenty GFs junctioned to them at the time of the unjunction should report to Dr. Kadowaki immediately.  Today's hot-dog day at lunch, and all students with detention today should report to Quistis Trepe's classroom during detention.  Um, the detention list just says 'the usual' on there, so I guess you guys know who you are.  Also, whoever's leaving the door to the training center open and letting out all the annoying little grass-like vermin had best stop lest they be expelled.  Commander Leonhart, could you report to the office?  Thank you," Sayaki said.  "Um, I think it's this one..." you could hear her mumble, and a click signaled that she'd figured out how to hang it up.

            I closed my eyes, enjoying the sunshine for a minute more.  Only now did I realize these were simple things I'd taken for granted…I wish I would have seen them earlier, but it was too late to go back now.  I finally got out of bed, put on jeans and a white t-shirt, and made my way to the office to see what Sayaki wanted this time.

"Morning, Sayaki," I smiled cheerfully.

"Good morning, Commander," she nodded, saluting me.  "Timber contacted us.  The GFs aren't cooperating with them anymore and are causing a bit of a disturbance…they ask that we remove them."

"Alright then," I nodded. "When should we leave?"

            I have to admit I was kind of nervous about doing this for real, but I wasn't about to just come out and tell the world about it or anything.

"Whenever you're ready," Sayaki shrugged.

"Okay…I'm ready now, so we need to put Xu and Quistis in charge again, if you're ready."

"Well, I'm ready to go, so if you want to alert them or if you want me to…"

"I will.  Meetcha at the Ragnarok?"

"Okay," she nodded, darting off.

            I didn't waste any time chatting with Quistis and Xu, just giving them the orders they needed. I quickly dashed off towards the Ragnarok.  Sayaki was inside waiting patiently on me.  As soon as I was in and buckled up, she drove off towards Timber, unusually silent.  I remembered that last time she'd talked a lot…

"…you okay?"

"My instructor contacted me this morning with good news and bad news.  The good news is that he and some of his friends have been helping us out by sealing GFs.  The bad news is there's some that are just too strong for them that we'll have to fight.  That's my report.  I forgot to tell you that earlier."

"Thanks," I said, pausing thoughtfully.  "…at least we don't have to seal quite as many now."

"Yeah," she nodded.  "But, Commander…the ones we're gonna have to fight…" she shook her head.  "You're right.  I should look on the bright side."

"You almost had Siren," I nodded, "so together we can do it."

"Right," she echoed grimly.  "Together we can do this…"

            I hope.  I stared out the window, feeling about as grim as she sounded.  I bit my lip.  If she got hurt… I shook my head, not allowing the thought. She put the Ragnarok on autopilot and stared out the window, her hands folded in her lap.

"What's gonna happen when this is all over?" she asked quietly.

"I dunno," I shook my head. I hadn't thought of that yet. Uncertainty made me uneasy for some reason, and I had tried to focus on the moment and not think ahead.

"I guess nothing will," she shrugged.  "I guess Galbadia-Trabia'll go park back where it normally stays and everything will go back to normal."

            I knew it was bad of me, but I didn't really want things back to normal.  I would probably never see Sayaki again, and I would go back to my training every day, and life would be boring again. I didn't want that. I wanted to have a Sayaki as a friend, and, as an annoying part of my brain kept saying, something more than a friend, forever. She sighed, playing anxiously with the end of her braid. I gazed at her, and then looked away, the thought of her leaving painful. She had become a part of my life, so now…. I couldn't imagine life without her.

"You'll be my penpal, right?  Seeking permission to get your address, sir?"

"Of course," I smiled, inwardly relieved.  I would not lose contact all together. But, I thought grimly, I would lose all chances of a future. I scribbled down my mailing address and e-mail address, handing it to her.

"Thanks, Commander," she smiled sadly, folding it up and putting it in her pocket.

"No problem."

            Maybe Cid could send me on a few missions to Galbadia…I didn't want Sayaki to leave, but that was selfish of me. I just wanted her to be happy. But if her being in Galbadia made her happy, then her being happy would result in me being miserable. But that was okay. I would deal. I had been in tough situations before.

"I…" she trailed off, looking at the map.  "No…we'll talk about this another time when it's more important..." she said, almost silently.  "Almost there," she took the Ragnarok off autopilot and prepared to get ready to land.

            I nodded, wondering how such an awful disaster could bring something like our friendship, but with the end of the disaster, our friendship was probably going to end as well. That stung, but I would get over it… Although, I wondered worriedly, would getting over it mean my heart icing over again?

"Guess I shouldn't be so gloomy," she smiled a little.  "I'm not fun to be around."

"It's okay," I said, "It's not like everyone's always in a good mood."

"Nah, even if I'm not there's no reason to ruin everyone else's day."

"Whatever you think."

            She glanced over to me, opened her mouth to say something, and then abruptly closed it.  I wondered what she was going to say… Her ghostly-pale face had turned slightly pink.  She was cute. I smiled.

"Preparing to land," she mumbled, landing the Ragnarok without harming anything this time.

I looked at her for a second, not even figuring that she would continue, but listening anyway.

"Alright…"

            She didn't reply, but grabbed her weapons and got out of the airship, checking them over.  I got out after her, hand on my gunblade, and hoped everything would be okay.

"Let's go," she smiled nervously, darting into the city straight towards the center of the town.  Ifrit stood in the middle, smirking, looking much like he had on our first encounter, with the exception of the different setting.

"Remember, we get his health low and I'll signal when we're ready to seal," she nodded to me seriously.  "Remembering to stop, drop, and roll might help too…" she tried to joke but couldn't force a smile.

"Be careful," I nodded to her.  I knew she would, but… Maybe I was paranoid. I would rather die than see her hurt though.

"Don't worry about me," she smiled, and then darted into battle. 

I followed immediately after her, dreading the fight against one of my own GFs.  Sayaki repeatedly attacked it, occasionally crying out when she got hit, but never backing down, even if she wasn't really that strong of a fighter.

            I remembered fighting Ifrit in a time that felt like forever ago, and surprisingly he had gotten stronger then when I last had him junctioned.  I quickly renzokukened him repeatedly, limit breaking it occasionally and paying attention for Sayaki's signal.

"Commander!" she called, frantically waving me over.  I ran over to her, heart thumping.

"Now?"

            She nodded quickly.  She looked okay, but tired.  The only injury she seemed to have was a cut that ran from the left side of her forehead to her left ear, but it didn't seem to be life-threatening.  She reached out and closed her hands tightly around my wrists, closing her eyes.

 "On three.  One, two, three…" she said, and started chanting. 

I followed along, chanting with her, unwavering, concentrating hard to remember the words and the rhythm.  She nodded enthusiastically to tell me I was doing okay.  A bluish aura surrounded us and Ifrit, feeling somehow cold and warm all at the entire time.  Her grip on my wrists tightened, and she was struggling to keep a steady rhythm.  Judging by just how scared she looked, I was beginning to wonder if this, too, was her first time doing this for real…aside from that time she tried against Siren, of course. 

Maybe this was the first time she'd made it this far too…I could tell she was scared, but yet at the same time she wasn't about to let that stop her.  I willed her to stay strong, wondering how long this would last.  Unexpectedly she started speaking the chant louder, pouring all of her soul into it.  Ifrit suddenly disappeared with a howl and a very disturbing sounding small 'pop', just as if we were in a cartoon show or something.  Of course, that was the last thing on my mind.

"We did it!" I exclaimed, grinning.

"Yeah, we did," she smiled shakily, though obviously just as happy as I was, letting go of her death-grip on my wrists.  "Wow…"

"You were great.  I don't know how you did that towards the end…" I smiled enthusiastically.

"It's like a limit break," she said simply.  "It's just…there.  You know what I mean?  It just comes…naturally.  That and I've been learning this since I could speak…"

            I smiled at her happily.

"You alright?"

            She traced a finger along the cut, wincing.

"It's not deep, luckily.  Feh.  A box of band-aids and I'll be just fine.  How about you?" she quickly looked at me for any visible signs of injury.

"I'm okay."

"Sure?  I've got grape-flavored antidotes!" she grinned, still looking me over carefully.

"Yeah." I smiled at her. Grape potions and antidotes. What a girl.

"Great," she grinned dazedly.  "Well, let's get outta here.  Hmm…maybe I'll stop by the cafeteria for ice cream.  I think I deserve ice cream after that," she said to herself, singing happily on the way back to the Ragnarok.

She had a pretty voice…. My face turned red.

"Mm hmm," I nodded, smiling at her.

She…I didn't know what I was feeling, but I had a sneaking suspicion that I had let myself fall all over again.

Xifa's notes:

            Hi guys…Xifa here…I want to give my many online thanks to—

Sefie Lynne—when I wrote down the plot synopsis and character sheet for Sayaki down in my old green notebook I was kind of sad, because I knew I had the inability to portray Squall as a character.  Many many thanks for helping me write this!  It's been another fun project!  Now we just need a title for our FF8 fanfic with Ayane and gang in it and we'll be posting like crazy!  WE HAVE TO WRITE THE SEQUEL TO THIS! I WILL FORCE YOU TOO!

Ultrabeing—Because Shrek 2 is awesome and you mentioned that -  I heart Puss 'n' Boots and Donkey!  Whoo!  …the best song in that was the fairy godmother song!  - so funny…

Mr. giggles-- -every- fiber of your being?  Whoo! Thanks!

Anonymous – Aww, Sayaki's my character, I'm glad you like her -  I haven't found much of a chance to throw too much information in on her yet…some of it gets revealed as you go through the chapters, if it makes you feel any better.  I'll try my hardest to throw some info in there before it ends, it's just…it's from Squall's point of view and it's more about him than her, so…y'know…well, I know I give out a bit of her past in the next chapter, like who the 'instructor' is she's  always talking about who taught her the spell and whatnot…

Svgfvsa—it is fun writing this -

Valec—we plan on writing more, definitely -

You—for reading, which is enough to at least make me happy, you know, if I know you've read this or whatever…instead of having review counts this should have hit counts on it too for how many times someone's read the story or whatever…

            Sefie and I have finished all the way through chapter nine, methinks, so keep watch out because as soon as I have the next internet option, I'll post the next chapter!  Yay!

Love and peace,

Xifa


	7. Chapter VII

Chapter Seven

I laid on my bed, reading a book and enjoying my day off. My mind still wandered, though, to my thoughts yesterday. Could I really...?

"May I have your attention for an announcement, please?" a tired voice came over the intercom, "Commander Leonhart, if you're in the building, could you please report to the office?  Weapons equipped and ready to leave, preferably."

That did not sound promising, I thought worriedly. I hoped everything was alright. I hurried to get dressed, quickly equipped my gunblade, and hurried to the office.

"Good afternoon," Sayaki nodded, saluting me.  I noticed the cut didn't seem as bad now.  Apparently she'd spent her morning with Dr. Kadowaki.  "Hope you're ready to leave.  Dollet's just called and a giant wing-ed GF is terrorizing the city...yeah...sounds like just another typical day, doesn't it?" she rolled her eyes, but was still smiling a little.  "Ready to go?"

"Yeah... that's Griever," I said, talking about the 'wing-ed GF' she mentioned.

Part of me was terrified to face him again.  I didn't know how I knew it was him…the feeling was just there.  Besides, how many winged GFs were that powerful? Only Griever. Griever. The name still scared me. Stupid? Yes. Wimpy? Yes. Do I care? I don't think so.

 "He's really powerful, don't underestimate him." I'd made that mistake before... And got locked in time compression for it.

"Alright.  I'll keep that in mind.  We'll use the same drill as yesterday, 'cept it'll probably take longer if he's stronger than Ifrit was and such.  Alrighty, let's go."

            She walked outside to the Ragnarok and hopped in.  I got in after her, wondering briefly about her driving fetish. Ah well. I didn't mind. I stared contently over at her from the passenger seat, gazing into her attractive eyes.

"So what's up?" I asked, trying to make conversation.

"Ah, same old," she smiled.  "Spent all last night memorizing extra spells just in case we'd need 'em.  You?"

I nodded. "Not a lot."

"That's always nice," she nodded.  "Wow, I'll miss driving this thing when its all over...I wanted to be a pilot when I grew up...I don't get chances to drive things like this much," she smiled at the Ragnarok.  "Just old junky rental cars."

"Maybe sometimes I can come to Galbadia and we can go somewhere, and you can drive. If you'd like that, I mean..."

"My friends would find that amusing, a big spaceship-dragon-airplane-thingy dropping in to visit me," she smiled.  "Only if you have time."

"When I'm not a commander I have plenty of time." I grinned… I'd always have time for Sayaki. I shook my head.  "And it'll be nice to have a break from constant training."

"I'd imagine," she smiled.  She suddenly stopped the Ragnarok in mid-air, staring straight out the window.  "Is that him?" she asked, the smile completely gone.

"That's -definitely- him."

He was hard to miss... He was there, grotesque and huge and more evil and ugly than ever. I shuddered, staring out at the thing that haunted my nightmares. Griever.  He made my blood run cold. This was so stupid of me to have this griever-phobia, but… He caused what felt like a lifetime of agony for me, and that was enough to make me hate him and become terrified of him.  Sayaki shivered.

"It's like he's waiting for us..." she drove a little lower, landing. She was right.  "I don't like this at all," she shook her head quickly, and then smiled weakly.  "What am I saying?  This is my job; I'd best be doing it."

"If you don't like what you do, then quit. It's that simple... what's the point in doing things that you don't like?" I should practice what I preach... "He probably -is- waiting for us... not only is he more powerful, he's smarter..." Smarter than any GF that I've ever seen.

"I owe this to Martine," she nodded.  "In any case, let's....let's go...."

I held out my hand, in which were some grape potions, and I smiled weakly. She only liked grape potions, and, her being stubborn, I had bought some. Part of me panicked. What if Sayaki got hurt? Put in time compression?

"Just in case you need 'em." I stated, swallowing my fear.

            She looked up at me and smiled.

"You…remembered…"  
"Yeah…" Of course. I smiled back.

"Thanks, but you hang onto them.  I'll survive," she beamed, but her smile was quickly replaced by a serious expression.  "Good luck and be careful!"

"You too, Sayaki…" I nodded. 

I was so afraid something would happen to her.  I didn't know what I would do if she got hurt and I couldn't protect her… I wouldn't allow myself to think about this. Not here, not now. I didn't have time to be scared; I just had to be strong.

"Alrighty, let's go.  I'll signal ya again and…" she shook her head.  "You know the drill, I don't know why I'm telling you this.  Let's go," she darted off towards Griever, a shruiken in one hand and a dagger in the other.

            …Stay safe, Sayaki.  I ran after her, keeping my items close but still using my offensive moves.  That was definitely harder…intelligence and power made a difference.  Sayaki wasn't really doing a lot of damage either.  She obviously wasn't very physically strong.  Not to mention that she didn't have limit breaks either.  All of her strength was in her spells, yet she tried her hardest anyway.

 I attempted another limit break, Fated Circle, before using a potion.  It was better to get in as much damage as I could, and I also wanted to save my potions in case Sayaki needed them.  Griever slashed rapidly at me angrily seemingly every time I attacked him, and that wasn't even counting the wave of shockwave pulsars…

"Just a few more hits!  Almost there, Squall!" she called out to me, firing at a distance with her tiny gun.  "You're doing good!"

"Thanks…" I nodded through clenched teeth, falling to one knee and struggling back up again.  "You need a potion?"

"We're done," Sayaki said quickly, running over to me.  "We're done, this is good enough.  Ready? 1, 2, 3," she started chanting nervously. 

Griever still needed about two or three thousand less health points, but apparently she didn't want to risk it.  I chanted along with her, too late to use a potion now, but still, it hurt with every word.  I hoped desperately that it would soon be over.

"Fools!" Griever laughed.  "Do you take me for an idiot?!"

            And then he began chanting the same words we were, only to a different rhythm, the blue aura dissipating into oblivion at once.  A thin beam connected Griever and me. Panic overwhelmed me. This was so familiar… No, not again…!

Sayaki panicked too—I could tell in her tone of voice—and began chanting something different than anything I'd ever heard before…same words, new rhythm.  Her green aura that was surrounding me was small and fading…she just wasn't enough to stop Griever.  Suddenly all the colors faded to black, but I woke up instantly. 

            I knew where I was, and it scared me to the point that I would do anything to get way.  I was in the place that would send me into nightmares for months at a time.  I was in that awful half of a dimension created from time compression.  I closed my eyes and searched for my potions, but none were there. 

I ruled out my options.  It felt like everything Griever had done to me, increased by about a hundred times.  I couldn't help but yell in pain, but what did it matter?  I knew there was no one here to hear me.  There was no Rinoa to help me this time…this time I would be in here until I died.  That would take forever, assuming this place had any form of measured time.  This time I was hurt, and that made the time compression, if possible, even worse.

The seconds, days, hours, or years, whatever they were, dragged by with the monotony of pain.  By my watch, within three minutes I felt like I was on the borderline of my sanity.  I forced myself to get up, even though every inch of my body screamed in protest.  I trudged along, the path frustratingly familiar. But inside I knew, however, that this time there was nothing to save me.  I fell to my knees again, breathing hard.

 I could hear a voice softly chanting the spell, and I wondered faintly if I was just imagining it.  What was left of my sanity anyways? The spell was being spoken so fast that it was amazing the complicated words were still correctly pronounced.  In a flash of soft violet light, Sayaki appeared. My hero. My friend. My savior.  She blinked a few times, disorientated, then darted over to me.

"My instructor and Headmaster Martine just arrived and are finishing off Griever," she saluted me, then stopped.  "What am I doing?!" she shook her head, and then knelt down beside me.  "…Squall?"

            I looked up to her and smiled weakly.  Amazing how in the worst of times, she still had such of an effect on me. Her smile, no matter how much pain I was in, made me want to melt. There was no denying it. I was in love.

"You came for me…thanks…but why?" Each breath, every word, seemed to stab through me like a knife.

            Why would_ anyone_ come to such a place like this?

"Why?" she echoed faintly. 

She was digging through an assortment of remedies, and I smiled weakly, thinking to myself that they must be grape. She wouldn't look exactly at me. I panicked, hoping nothing was wrong with her. Please, please don't let her be on a death-count…! She was also blushing again, I noticed, and wouldn't look at me as she answered my question with one of her own.

"…permission to fall in love with you, sir?" she asked, almost silently.

            I gazed up at her.  I made mental note to give her my ring when we got out of here.  I reached up and brushed my hand gently against her face. So much…so much had happened in the past months. But the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me was Sayaki Ghost.

"Only if I have permission to fall in love with you." I whispered, my knees nearly buckling.

"Permission granted, sir…permission granted," she smiled, then shook her head.  "Okay, Squall, how can I help you?  I have remedies.  That's it.  Do you have any potions?"

"I did.  When Griever attacked me, I must've dropped them.  But I'll be okay." I was trying to reassure both of us.

"I have a healing spell, but I'm not good at it so it's practically worthless," she sighed.  She was crying but not saying anything about it.  "How long can you survive in a place like this?"

"I dunno…are you okay?"

"I don't like this," she shivered.  "I shouldn't have said that earlier," she whispered. "I know that's probably the last thing you wanna hear from me…I'm sorry…"

"Sayaki…no, don't be sorry," I shook my head. It gave me a reason to fight, because without Sayaki… what was left for me? "You told me yourself that there was something better for me…and now I know that.  I know now that you've changed me.  You've helped me find myself when I was afraid I was lost forever… I love you," I sank down, then forced myself back up.

"Sit back down," she frowned slightly, but it was more of a concerned frown than anything.  "I don't know how long we're going to be here and you're hurt…"

            I sat down without argument.

"Sayaki…" I wanted to tell her just how I felt but couldn't put it into words.

"I'm sorry," she shook her head.  "I get kind of bossy when I'm nervous," she sighed, sitting closer to me this time.  "I wish they'd hurry.  I hate it here.  I don't know how you could stand it…" she looked over at me, upset, and I wanted to brush all of her worries away. "You're hurt something awful…I wish it were me sending Griever away," she frowned bitterly.  "…but I remembered how you described time compression that one time…I didn't want you to have to suffer through that alone…and I was worried about you, so I just came here instead…" she looked over at me, smiling sadly.  "You're pretty banged up," she commented, reaching over and gently brushing my bangs out of my face. My stomach flipped.  "I wish I could help you.  I can try that minor healing spell, if you'd like.  Or I know a spell that'll put you into a deep sleep so you won't have to think about this place or the pain…" she looked at her watch.  "I hope they're okay up there…"

"Thank you..."

I couldn't believe that, after all I told her, that she would go into time compression for me... Part of me regretted telling her about it. She didn't need to know all that. It had made her come in here and suffer it with me.  Stupid, stupid Squall. But that was okay. I wasn't alone now, and things didn't seem quite so bad when I had Sayaki.

"Welcome," she nodded off-handedly, still staring about the place with a look of dislike on her face. I couldn't blame her.

"...Sayaki, I don't know anyone who would do this for me... I mean, it's just..."

Like living heck here... I wish she wouldn't have come after me in a sense, because I didn't want her to go through this, but another part of me was glad I wasn't alone in this place. I decided that was an okay thing to feel.

"Of course you do," she rolled her eyes.  "I mean, I'm here, and y'know me..."

I smiled at her. "I dunno anyone -else- who would do this for me... If there's anything I can ever do to make it up to you..." I was eternally in debt to her.

"I know another who'd do this for you.  I had to force him to stay in the other world simply because he was the only one who could seal Griever without any help," Who the heck….? Sayaki stared up into the nothingness sky.  "In any case, I think he's finished off now.  We should be out of here anytime now...I think I can hear him..." she closed her eyes, focusing.

I didn't want to interrupt her thought, but I wondered who the heck would come in after me.

"Let's go," she whispered, placing her hand on my shoulder and we were suddenly back in Dollet. I had never been so relieved.

"Are you okay?! It took me forever to get Griever gone and then I'd never even used that spell before," none other than Laguna shook his head frantically.  "I mean--"

"--calm down, it's just fine," Sayaki smiled, shaking her head.  I'd let them do the talking, cause I felt like crap.

"Um, Squall, this is my instructor, Laguna Loire.  However I think you two are already acquainted..."  No kidding. She turned to Laguna.  "Headmaster Martine...he was fighting Griever, right?" she asked politely.

            Laguna looked around, at the sky, at the ground...everywhere but at Sayaki. I had a bad feeling about this… such a bad feeling.

"Fine, I'll go find him then!  I don't care if he rants me out for leaving," she rolled her eyes, darting off.

            Laguna sighed.

"He won't be ranting her out anytime soon..."

"Laguna... what happened?"

A thousand questions and realizations were exploding in my head, but they could wait. I didn't want to deal with Laguna, but I had no other choice. Still I felt a bitter resentment at Laguna that I thought would never fade.

"Well, Martine and I just showed up after you got sucked into time compression.  Sayaki was freaking out, so I told her I'd go in after you.  She told me no, that she'd go...I let her talk me into it because she couldn't seal Griever alone.  Guess that's why she brought you along.  If you wanted to know what happened to Martine..." he shook his head.  "Martine's just too old to be fighting like that..."  I stared at him.

It was my fault Marine was dead. A horrible realization, but a true one. It was all my fault… A wave of guilt rushed over me. He cleared his throat, ready to change the subject. 

"Dangit, you're hurt pretty bad...here, take this," he pulled out an X-potion.  Strawberry-kiwi flavored, if you wanted to get technical.  Just like Sayaki's grape. "Sayaki's been telling me how well you've come along with this spell and such...she's very proud of you."  He handed the potion to me.  "...so am I."

"Thankyou." I took the x-potion gratefully and stood up. "... I... I'm sorry..."

I'm sorry I haven't had anything to do with you, I'm sorry I've been angry at you... I've been ticked off that I thought you had ignored me, but it turns out I was the one ignoring you. All at once the anger washed away, leaving me totally emotionally drained.

"I would have done anything..." he shook his head.  "I didn't even know you were around until I met you...I mean, I had no idea...I would have come for you, but I didn't even know you existed."  He stared at the sky, a painful expression on his face.  "I'm sorry about Raine too...God, I would have given my own life just to save her, I loved her so much....I didn't want it to happen....I would have done anything, I just didn't know..."  he shook his head.  "I'm a failure.  I just hope you can forgive me and accept me for what I am."

"Laguna, it's okay. I don't blame you anymore... I had my own issues, and I always blamed them on other people, but now I know better... It's okay."

            He smiled weakly.

"Thanks..."

"Laguna!" Sayaki shrieked.  "Get over here, there's something wrong with Martine!  Hurry up before it's too late!"

The tone in her voice made me want to sink to my knees. Sayaki… I am so sorry. 

"What am I supposed to tell her?"  Laguna frowned.  "How...." he shook his head.  "Coming, Sayaki..."

"Nothing can save him?" I searched frantically for a phoenix down. "Are you sure?"

"...another one of those Trabian spells...don't think it can be reversed..."  Just by the tone in his voice though, I could tell he didn't -think- it could be reversed, he -knew- it couldn't.  "Sayaki, Martine's..."

"Fix him!" she yelled up at Laguna. This painful experience wrenched my heart, seeing Sayaki like this… Knowing it was my fault… "C'mon, you taught me all my magic!  You know something to help him, do it!  Please!"

I knelt next to her.

"Sayaki..."

I shook my head and put my hand on her shoulder. It had always seemed like Sayaki and Martine had a special connection, and I knew this would be hard on her. I didn't quite understand it, but this wasn't the time. She would have to let this wound heal.

"What?" she asked weakly.  "You know a way out of this?"

"There isn't a way," Laguna shook his head.

"Why didn't you cure him?!"

"Because I couldn't!" Laguna frowned.  "Don't blame me!  I just did everything he told me to!"

"Didn't we all..." she sighed, staring down at him.  She bent over him, shaking his shoulders, even though she knew it was hopeless.  "Daddy...please wake up, please...just one more time, I promise I'll be good this time…"

That one word shook my world. Daddy. Martine had a kid. And it was Sayaki. I knew he had always been special to her, but this… this was… No. No, no…. I refused to think about it. I would think about it when I was alone and not afraid to cry, to let anger or fear loose.

"Sayaki..."

"He's gonna wake up, I know it," she shook her head angrily.  "I know he will."

I gave her a hug. Now that I thought about it, it would probably be the same way now if Laguna got hurt. I stored away all my thoughts for later contemplation and tried to help Sayaki in any way I could. She shook her head, letting go of Martine.  She turned to me, biting her lip.

"I've still got you, right?"  she asked me quietly.

"Forever." I nodded, hoping she'd be okay. This wasn't fair. Not at all.

"Laguna, I don't know what to do, but--"

"--I'll take care of it," Laguna nodded.

"Should I go back to the Garden?"

"Yeah, that'd probably be a good idea.  You need a break and Squall needs some recovery time, so the Garden's probably the best place to head.  I'll take care of everything here," Laguna nodded.

"Thank you," she smiled weakly to Laguna.  "I..."

"You don't owe me anything," Laguna smiled.  "Just get going before anything else can happen."

"Alright," she said, standing up. 

I didn't know what to say to make Sayaki feel better, and I went with my head lowered to the Ragnarok. So much had happened today... So much to think about. This was to much.  She started driving back, not really focusing on anything, and just paying enough attention to keep us flying.

"I'm gonna be okay," she said quietly.  "I mean, I'll…I'll make it through this.  I just won't think about it.  So I'm just gonna…not think about it.  So let's talk about things that don't even involve him, okay?" she smiled over to me.  "You don't have to say anything about it.  We're just…not gonna mention this or anything," she nodded.  "Wow, I'm so glad that we defeated Griever, or at least with Laguna's help we did.  I guess it was worth it, putting up with all of this, if nothing else just to save the world…"

But was it worth it, trading Martine's life for the current reprieve of Griever's presence?  I smiled back.  Deep down, I knew that I was glad most of this had happened.  Not the part about Martine, but the other parts of it.  I was glad that Rinoa and I were just friends, if we could even be that, because Sayaki made me feel different.  I had loved Rinoa in another way, not romantically like I had once thought, but…I dunno.  I felt now that I had loved her as more of a sister than the way I loved Sayaki.  But I knew for sure what I felt for Sayaki was real.

"Only a few more GFs left…I'm heading to college after this, methinks…not sure where yet, but I'm still thinking.  …you know it would be my luck,"she smiled, "that I would finally meet someone worth meeting and then have to leave," she shook her head.  "What am I saying?  I guess I should just be glad I got to meet you in the first place."

"After college, I guess, and then maybe we could get together again, if you'd want."

Can I go and curl up in my hidey hole now?

"How long are you going to college?"

"…I mean, after you're done with college.  I'm not going."

"Oh.  I guess it's me that'll screw everything up then…stupid Sayaki…"

"No, not at all.  You deserve to go to college if you wanna."

"Well, we've still got time before I go," she smiled weakly.  "According to Laguna there are still a few more GFs for us to worry about.  So we've still got time.  We can worry about this later.  I'm still on summer break anyway…so…yeah."   

"Mm-hmm…" I smiled at her a little sadly. All that had happened would fade away when she was gone.

"I've always wanted to go into space," she said thoughtfully, looking around the Ragnarok.

"Maybe you will, after college," I nodded, hoping her dreams to be fulfilled.

"Dad always told me 'no'," she said.  I noticed she was trying her hardest just to tell a story and not think about anything.  Maybe this was just her way of dealing with grief… "He said that my sister and I was all he had left, and he'd prefer to keep us in the same atmosphere as him," she smiled sadly.  "Who knows, though?  Maybe I will go up there someday, now."

"Good luck…I know you can accomplish anything you set your mind to."

            Gosh, I shouldn't have said that.  It sounded like fortune cookie logic…

"Thanks," she smiled. "…did you get back on good terms with your father?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "I think."

"I'm glad.  He really regrets not being there for you all those years," she shook her head and smiled.  "Laguna is a very good person.  I've known him a long time."

"I just wish that I could have known him…I didn't even know who he was or even if he existed a year ago...and I wish that I would have been on better terms with him before now."

"Well, look at it this way, at least now you have the chance to get to know him.  Sure, you'll never be able to recover all those lost years, but you've still got the future ahead of you."

"Yeah, I guess…but still, I guess I'd missed having a father when I was younger…"

Shut up while you're ahead, Squall. At least you have a father to have future memories with.

"I'm sorry.  I don't know what to say about that."

"It's okay…sometimes there just aren't things to say."

"Ever wondered if you're doing the right thing?" Sayaki asked suddenly.

"Yes.... Many times." I nodded.

"I'm glad to know I'm not the only one," she nodded slowly.  "Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing the right thing just by being here...I'm caught up in a battle that doesn't even involve me, only because I learned a 'poem', so to speak, as a young child.  Is this -really- what's meant for me?"

"Follow your heart, Sayaki. It always leads you in the direction destiny wants you to go."

"...Squall, I'll be perfectly honest with you.  I've been here for what, a few months now?  ...this isn't for me.  I really hate Balamb, I really hate this place, I really don't like this job...you know what I'm saying?"  she spoke really quickly.  Obviously she had needed to talk about this for quite awhile now, but had only just gotten around to bringing it up.

"If this isn't what you want, then don't do it, Sayaki." I said gently.

"What?" she glanced over at me.  "What do you mean?  It's not like I've been given a choice..."

"What...?" I was confused.

            She glanced up at me.

"There wasn't a sign up sheet for assistant-commander of Balamb Garden at my public high school or anything like that.  Dad roped me into this because I was 'lucky' enough to know the GF sealing spell.  I had no choice but to do exactly as he said..."

"You can do whatever you want, Sayaki. Nothing is really keeping you here."

"...I know," she nodded.  "But, I mean...I don't think...I've got to at least finish this out...for Dad, if for no one else..."

I nodded. "Alright."

            She slumped down in her seat.

"But what about when this is over?  Then what?"

"Then..." I trailed off and gazed at her. "I'll do anything I can to help you do whatever you want."

Squall, better put your heart away, because it's on your sleeve.

"...but..." she looked away.  "....I don't know how you can help me...I'm still not sure what I want...." she shook her head.

"Just say the word and I'll do anything."

            She sighed. 

"You're too nice...I wish that I didn't have to meet you in a time like this.  I wish you would have just been another student at my high school...or that I had been born into this type of military life..."

            I nodded, knowing just what she meant.

"I know that the circumstances make this difficult, but..." Here goes the three big words that change lives…

"...but?" she prompted, looking back down at the ground. 

"But I love you." I finished quietly.

"I love you too..." she sighed.  "And maybe that'll be enough to make things work out..."

"Hopefully."

"I still don't want to stay, though...I guess I should.  I guess this should be enough to keep me here," she shook her head.  "I don't know...I don't know about much of anything anymore..."

"Don't stay if you don't want to. It's not like you haven't already helped save the world, Sayaki. That's a lot to say, and not many people can say they've accomplished something so huge."

"I haven't saved the world yet," she said simply.  "I can think of a few GFs just off the top of my head that we still have left.  I know I have to stay until that's over.  It's where I'm going to go afterward that's the issue..." she shook her head.  "I mean, I'm graduating this year from a high school in Deling City, but I'm heading to Esthar after this.  I've been thinking, and Esthar's college just seems to be the best place for me to be…not to mention that's where my sister lives too so…but, the main point is…you know…halfway across the world...no long distance phone plan covers that...."

"I dunno..." I sighed. "...I just dunno..."

            She double checked to make sure the Ragnarok was still on autopilot, and content that it was, she leaned against the steering wheel.

"Maybe I'll stick around..." she mumbled.

            I didn't know what to say. I wanted her to be happy. I didn't want to lose her. What -could- I say? Indecision tore at me. What could I do or say to make her feel better? What could I say to help her?

"Because...I mean, I hate it here, but...I mean..." she glanced over at me miserably.  "I wanna be with you too, and it's not like you can just up and move..."

"It's all up to you. I know what you mean... I want you to be happy, yet I don't want to lose you. Whatever is best for you... By all means do so." I nodded at her. This hurt. But sometimes… you just had to make sacrifices for the one you love.

"I think maybe I should just stop thinking about it.  I can always burn that bridge when I get there, right?" she smiled weakly at me.

"Yeah." I bit my lip, forcing a smile.

"And I have all summer too, so it's not like I have to leave right off anyway..."

"Mm hm." I let thought envelope me, feeling awkward.

"What do you think I should do?"

"I... I don't know." I ran a hand through my hair. "I'm torn between... what I want and what I feel you think is right."

"What do you want?" she asked me.  "...because I'm willing to compromise things I want with things you want...then maybe we can both be happy."

"I want to be with you, and I want you to be happy." I want a future with you.

"You're easily pleased," she smiled weakly.

"That's really all I want." I sighed. "But I don't know about how anything can be accomplished any more..."

"Maybe that's half the fun of it," she glanced up at me.  "Who knows what tomorrow'll bring...maybe as soon as I get back I'll find I have to leave forever.  Who knows, maybe I'll get back and find out that Balamb's university now has a space program.  We never know what the next moment is going to bring...and maybe that's why I like life so much.  Unpredictable.  I'm all about the unpredictable.  Maybe we're not supposed to know what's coming next...or how to accomplish anything.  Maybe it'll be revealed with time."

"Maybe." I smiled at her, my heart melting. She had that effect on me.

"So in that case, maybe we need to stop worrying so much about the future and just live for the moment.  I mean, who knows...something might happen to me and I might never have to worry about everything we just spent fifteen minutes of precious time worrying about!  I wish I would have thought of this before..." she sighed impatiently.

I laughed. "Ironic, all of it..."

"I don't know anything about anything and I'm happy with that," she smiled.  "All I know is we're gonna kick some GF arse and the world's gonna be okay."

"Alright."

            I grinned at her, laughing quietly. Arse. That was a new word. She pulled in for a landing, managing not to kill any trees or any 'pesky vermin', as she called them, and hopped out of the Ragnarok.

"Seeking permission to take the rest of the day off, at least, sir?" she saluted me.

"Of course." I nodded.

"...just an opinion, but I think you should take the day off too.  It's been a long few months.  We both deserve a two hour vacation, at the least..."

"Alright." I smiled at her.

            She stretched.  "Ah, I'm off to do something...I dunno...non-traditional of me.  I just...gotta get my mind off everything...everything..." she shook her head quickly and walked off.

I stared after her, letting all that happened soak in for a minute before walking off as well.

A/n: Eventful…ne?  Well, I hope you liked it, in any case.  Chapter eight to be posted soon! Thanks to everyone!

Love and peace,

Xifa and Sefie Lynne


	8. Chapter VIII

          Chapter Eight

    I awoke from a chilling darkness into the stormy air.  I can't think of any other way to put it...but something in the air was simply, electrified.  The kind of weather you know you don't need to be in...that was the case.  Yet something about it was horribly familiar....

"Squall," a voice I recognized all too well called out to me.  A voice that had occupied my mind for so many years....

"Quetzalcoatl?!" I stumbled, shocked, towards the source.

"Squall," Quetzalcoatl said simply, appearing within my view suddenly.  In his current state, he wasn't quite the majestic thunderbird I'd remembered him being, but rather a diminished, weakened version of himself.  He was still larger than me, but not by much.  "I see you've learned much since our last encounter."

"Quetzalcoatl..." He wasn't just a GF, he was my friend... "What can I do to help you?"

"I don't need your help," he shook his head.  "By all means...you've done quite enough as it is just by beridding this world once again of Griever."

"I want to help you. You're my friend, and you're hurt..."

"Not hurt, just...regressing, so to say," Quetzalcoatl shook his feathers, a few of them falling out.  He almost looked a little disappointed, if possible.

"Why... am I here?" I looked around.

"We need to have...a discussion," Quetzalcoatl said simply.  "About what is now and what is still to come...and how all of it involves you."

"Whatcha mean? Sayaki? The other GFs?"

"All of those.  You and Sayaki have both done fine sealing away the evil which is us, but..."

"But?"

"But as soon as you are sealing us away...all of your hard work is being undone.  We're being unsealed just as soon as you send us to that dimension of time compression."

"How can I stop it?"

"Squall, it's taking place at least five year from now, maybe less maybe more...in any case, it's not taking place right now.  Someone is waiting for the opportune moment to strike...and wherever in time they're at, they've taken it.  And when you reach that time...you'll see just how destructive they can be."

"Who is it? How can I stop it? Why is this happening?"

"The person will come to be an enemy of yours...if not already.  Someone wants power...and we are obviously the ticket to get them there."

"Seifer?"

"I'm not sure who it is, to be quite honest with you," Quetzalcoatl said simply.  "I know very few of your friends...only those you thought of a lot.  And even of this...people change as they get older.  I didn't recognize the person.  Who knows...perhaps you would.  There's no way to tell...I just felt you needed to be warned of your future...As of right now, there is nothing you can do about this matter, though," he shook his head.  "Your only option is not to seal us...which would wish nothing but destruction upon this time.  So there's no need to worry about that right now," he sighed.  "However, a fight might soon commence between the two of us...I just wanted to make sure you were prepared."

 "I don't want to fight you... isn't there any way...?!" I felt anguished, not wanting to fight one of my best friends. Quetzalcoatl and I had seen it all together.

"As a GF, I never learned the spells that you all use not only against us, but for us as well...I'm not the one to ask on an issue like this," Quetzalcoatl shook his head.

"I can't hurt you... it would be like hurting Zell or Selphie... I could never make myself do it."

"I see no way out of it," he shrugged.  "It'll do no good to deny your job to me.  I don't have an alternative for you."

"I'm so sorry..." I sighed. But deep down I knew I could never do it. Never.

"I'm not angry with you," he said, wrapping his wing around me.  "I know this distresses you but there's nothing at the moment you can do about it.  Don't worry about it."

    It had been a long time since I had let Quetzalcoatl comfort me. It had been so long ago, in my childhood before I resented the world quite as much. It felt good not to be alone again. "...Thank you."

"You're welcome.  I'll go easily for you, okay?  If you don't find an alternative, there will be no need to fight me.  I won't resist...I already see the damage we've done."

"I'm still sorry... if I must fight you, keep that in mind."

"I know you're not doing this because you want to," Quetzalcoatl shook his head.  "I've occupied your mind long enough to know that."

"Thank you."

"...is there anything else you need before I go?"

"Just to have you back, my friend, and I can't do that yet." I smiled sadly.

"Perhaps someday that shall be," Quetzalcoatl nodded.  "Will that be all, then?"

"I guess." I sighed. I didn't want to leave him. I had so much to tell him.

"I can stick around just a bit longer, if you have anything left you need to know or say," he said.  "You'll just need to make it quick before my time is up..."

"I won't keep you. All I wanted was to talk, but it's not important. Just the fact that I asked Sayaki out." I quirked a smile.  Quetzalcoatl was the only one I could really trust with these things.

"And what did she say?" Quetzalcoatl asked, sounding almost cheerful in spite of everything.

"Yes. She said yes." I beamed.

"I'm thrilled," Quetzalcoatl smiled sincerely.  "She seems nice enough...I've met the GF she used the most...of course, they didn't work on a junction system, but I did learn a lot about her..." Quetzalcoatl smiled.  "And I suppose, with the exception of the whole 'save the world' problem, that everything is going well for you then?"

"Yeah. Definitely. I can't wait till this is over and I can tell you more." I smiled.

He smiled sadly.  "Yes, I can't wait for that time either..."

    Don't leave me. The words rang through my head, my own thoughts and also my past feelings. Sis leaving. Don't leave me; I had thought so many times. I was gonna hafta leave Quetzalcoatl. I was about to tell him, but I started falling away from him. No! I didn't want to lose him....

"My time is up...another day, my friend," he said as everything faded into darkness and then into blinding light; light that was flowing from my open window...

     I winced. 'Don't leave me'.... it was too late. I would've given anything to have my friend back. He wasn't like Zell or Selphie or the gang. He wasn't even like Sayaki. He was a part of me. I had a void in me, empty where that special friendship once was. I wanted a part of me back. Just a little part of me. There wasn't much of me left that I'd had all my life. I was constantly loosing and gaining myself, but few of my original pieces remained. He was one of them. And he was gone. I rolled out of bed and stretched, getting dressed and pulling out a pad of paper, writing a letter to Laguna.

A/n: Okay, chapter nine to come soon.  I'll be gone on band trip for the next four days, so don't expect another chapter until at least Friday!  Whoo, guys!  I'll be having fun, and hope you all have a great week too!

Love and peace,

Xifa and Sefie Lynne


	9. Chapter IX

Surgeon General's Warning:  If you hate fluff, skip this chapter and go on to chapter ten.

Chapter Nine

"Sayaki?" I asked hesitantly.

"Hiya, Squall!" she smiled up at me cheerfully from a notebook full of tiny scribbles that just might have been letters...they were too small to tell.  "How are you doing?"

"Pretty good, you?"

"I'm definitely alive," she beamed happily.

"You busy?"

"I'm never to busy to spend time with you," she said, closing her notebook and looking up at me.

    I smiled at her.

"So do you wanna go to dinner or something?"

 "Sounds like fun," Sayaki smiled, standing up.

"Alright." I smiled, glad I hadn't made an idiot of myself.

"Are we leaving now, then, or what?"

"Depends. You ready?"

"I'm ready anytime," she smiled.

"Okay then." I walked to the garage and to my car.

"Hey, um, favor!" she looked over to me.  "Seeking permission to drive...I kind of need to learn my way around here, incase I stick around, and all..."

"Alright." I opened the driver's door for her.

"I won't wreck your car," she smiled up at me as she hopped in.

"Alright. I'll take your word for it." I beamed.

    I got in myself thoughtfully. Quetzalcoatl... my mind drifted on the dream for a while, completely undisturbed.  Sayaki drove silently, and it wasn't until probably an hour later that I noticed we definitely should have been in Balamb at least fifteen minutes ago...that and the scenery didn't look at all familiar.  I fumbled around for a minute. Then I remembered taking my map in. Stupid, stupid mistake. I tried to get a sense of direction and failed. Crud...

"Eiyakish!" she suddenly yelped, slamming to a stop.  Thank heavens for seatbelts.  "Cripes!" she gasped.  "I didn't know there was a CLIFF on the way to Balamb!!!"

"There's... not." I sighed, smiling at her. I didn't really mind all that much, being lost. Alone it would have bothered me. But with someone to talk to, especially Sayaki, the time would fly while we found our way back. We couldn't get lost forever.

"I... I definitely think we're lost."

"But...I was driving the right way...wasn't I?" she looked over at me with an innocent, hopeful look in her eyes, voice quiet and small.  "Wasn't I going the right way?"

"I..." I felt bad to tell her for some reason. "Eh...no. No, not really. That's okay. We can find our way back... we can't be that far."

"But we are lost..."

    I nodded.

"Oh..." she sighed dejectedly.  "I'm sorry..."

"No problem." I smiled. "We'll find our way back."

"It's a tiny island...why is it I can find my way across the entire world but not a tiny island?" she looked out across where she'd slammed the car to a stop, admiring the scenery.  "Oh, it's pretty..."

"Yeah." I nodded and gazed at her rather than the scenery. 'Yeah, you are' ran through my head and I almost said it. But I didn't.

"The view back at Deling wasn't so nice," she shook her head.  "I loved the look of the city, though, from the top floor apartments...the lights were pretty.  But this?" she gestured out in front of us.  "This is almost just as beautiful...if not more, perhaps...I was never one of nature's fans, but this is enough to make me want to be..."

    She paused, then continued much more quietly with, "...enough to make me consider staying in Balamb..."

"Really?" I grinned.

 "Maybe," she stared up at the sky, then down at the floorboard, internally struggling with choices she obviously didn't want to make.  "Maybe," she echoed quietly.

    I nodded and decided to shut up. I didn't want to affect her choice... I was afraid of affecting her judgment and helping her make the wrong choice.  But apparently I was a combination of really brave or really stupid. I reached over and squeezed her hand, smiling.

"I'm just glad to have you as long as you're here."

    She smiled over at me, and squeezed my hand back.

"Y'know, I--ack!"  She fumbled for the breaks as the car started rolling backwards.  She looked over at me and blushed sheepishly.

"I, er, must have put it in neutral instead of park..."

    I laughed and pushed her bangs out of her eyes. She wasn't perfect, but she was very close. The greatest combination of all. Perfect is so boring. But she was perfect. To me she was. I felt for her in that moment something I had never felt for Rinoa.

"It's okay. We all make mistakes. Accidents happen. Otherwise life would be boring."

    She smiled a little, and then laughed too.

"It's kind of funny...I can fly that forkin' Ragnarok like it's a paper airplane but when it comes to cars I'm about as horrid as they come..."

I smiled at her. "You aren't horrid. You just... need some practice, that's all."

"No, I'm horrible at this!  It's okay, it's not gonna make me mad or anything...I just can't see a mile in front of me in this thing and therefore I just can't drive it!  I'm perfectly okay with that..."

I laughed. "Well, while we're out here... do you wanna take a walk and see if we can recognize anything?"

"Yeah, it beats driving," Sayaki laughed, smiling and hopping out of the car.

    I got out, looking up at the moon and the stars twinkling.  I sucked in a breath. A subject popped to mind but part of me was afraid to discuss it due to indecision of where Sayaki would go.... She stood beside me, silently staring at the stars.  On a cloudless night you could see all of them...the moon was nothing but a silver crescent, but in a way it just enhanced the beauty of the stars...

"It's so beautiful out here...."

"I agree," she said quietly.  "It's nice to see the sky from a different view...it looks different from Galbadia.  Not necessarily better, just...different."  She stared up at the stars.  "It's harder to find the constellations I learned in Galbadia here..."

I blinked at her. "Thank you, Sayaki. For everything."

    I let myself be covered by a blanket of thought. I owed her so much. My life on more than one count. My world... she had saved me from darkness, death, destruction, all I was afraid of...She glanced over at me, looking slightly confused.

"Um, you're quite welcome," she said, although she obviously wasn't quite sure what I meant.

I continued with, "You've... changed my life. Thank you. You've blotted out the darkness, saved me and helped me get away from the idea of suicide and cold exteriors. I owe you more than I could put into words."

"You've done a lot for me too," she said quietly, reaching over and squeezing my hand.  "I'm not sure you realize it yet, but maybe someday you will.  You're welcome...for anything I might have done for you.  I...I don't know..." she shook her head.  "From the moment I met you there was something about you I liked...I'm still not exactly sure what it is, but whatever it may be, I'm thankful for it..." she trailed off, gazing at something that I couldn't see.

    I kept my hand in hers. I felt a slight heat creep into my cheeks. I didn't mind. Sayaki did that to me. Made me want to melt... I smiled at her.

"What are you going to do?" she asked suddenly.  "What are you gonna do when we fight your GF?"

"I... I talked to him. He said it was right to fight him, and even though I hate to fight him, I'm okay with it."

"No...Squall, we're gonna seal him away forever," she looked up to me.  "I didn't want to do that to Bahamut ZERO, but it was okay, because...because it had to be done and it's different for me.  But I don't know how close you and Quetzalcoatl were...are you really okay with sealing him away forever in time compression?  Honestly?"

"No, but it must be done."

"I...think I know an alternative," she said quietly.  "It might not be the best choice, but I'm really uncomfortable with all of that knowledge being sealed away...I'd kind of like to keep one GF around, and it seems that yours is the most trustworthy.  And...and I think I know a way around sealing him, and yet sealing him at the same time and..." she trailed off, looking to me nervously for my opinion.

"Really?" My heart pounded. Would I get Quetzalcoatl back?

"Maybe...I mean, you're not gonna be able to draw off of his powers anymore, and he's not gonna be junctioned to you ever again or anything but...I mean...I think I have an idea, but I'll need your help, so..."

"I'll do whatever you need me to. Besides, I don't need his powers... I just need him around."

"That's what I figured," she nodded.  "And I have an idea.  But, um, you can't tell anyone, because, it's, like..." she looked away.  "It's like, forbidden magic, in a way.  This is a spell that's only been used once before and there's kind of an unspoken rule that you just don't do it.  But I've never been much of a conformist, have I?" she smiled weakly, and then continued with, "We'll have to fight Quetzalcoatl and defeat him, and then seal him away.  There's no way around that," she said professionally, thinking as she spoke.  "Then you'll send me in, I'll unseal him, and when you call me back, he'll come too.  It should work just fine."

"You'd go into time compression..?" I gazed at her worriedly.

"It shouldn't take me long.  And I'll be okay.  I will be.  I can do this," she nodded as if to reassure herself.  "Your GF will help me, and I'll do this."

"Thank you." I smiled, somewhat relieved and somewhat worried.

"Anytime," she nodded.  "I...I just want you to be happy, and if this is what it'll take, this is what I'll do..."

I looked over at her. "Thank you Sayaki..."

    I was overwhelmed by a sense of affection. I had come to know Sayaki over the past months and I had never felt anything like being around her. I loved her. I loved her more than life itself.

"You're welcome," she said quietly.  She glanced up and beamed suddenly.  "Shooting star! Hurry and make a wish!" she closed her eyes.

    I wish... This was so hard. I wished for Sayaki to be happy. I wished for a life with her. I wished for...

"I wish to find love in you forever, no matter how far apart, because I don't know how I could live without you." I whispered.

    She looked over at me, almost as if not expecting this, then hugged me suddenly, tears in her eyes.

"Squall...."

I hugged her back. "I love you, and I always will." I whispered in her ear. Tears also sprung to my eyes. I didn't want to lose her. If she left, she'd take all of my heart with her... I'd be nothing more than an empty shell.

"I'll stay in Balamb as long as I can, okay?  And when I go back to school, I'll come home on the weekends, okay?  And I'll call when I'm gone and it'll be just like when I'm here, I promise..." she hugged me tighter, voice sounding different, probably because she was crying and yet trying not to all at once. 

"Thank you. I'll write or email you everyday.... Sayaki, you're the best thing that ever happened to me."

"Thank you, Squall...thank you..."

"Sayaki…"

    I smiled a somewhat watery, teary smile.  She had simply won me over...It was amazing how she had so easily slipped under my guard and stolen my heart.  I wanted whatever was best for her, and it was selfish to wish she was here with me.

"Stop that," she smiled weakly.  "Look at you, you're making me cry too!"

"Sorry," I laughed, wiping my eyes no my sleeve and then brushing away her tears.

"You'd best be," she grinned.

"Alright," I stuck my hands in my pocket, the moment over, but still the feeling I got when she hugged me remained.  I had fallen for her beyond belief…she was amazing.  I loved her so much.

"You know, I've been thinking about everything.  And maybe after I'm done in space, I'll get a job like, in Balamb.  Because you know what?  I think journalism sounds interesting too.  Blame it on Laguna," she laughed.  "But I can do that too.  And I mean, this place isn't really _that_ bad or anything…hmm…I don't know.  You know?  I guess it goes back to the whole planning thing.  Maybe I should just take it as it comes."

"Thank you, Sayaki.  Maybe someday, if you want to stay in Galbadia, I can try that place for awhile.  Y'know, since you've tried this place out.  I'd be glad to do it for you…I mean, if that's okay and all," I added hurriedly, wondering suddenly if she would want me in Galbadia.

"You know, I…I really appreciate you saying that.  I really do.  But there's nothing left for me in Galbadia…I'm either sticking around here or heading to Esthar, but…Galbadia…I just can't go back there," she shook her head.

"Alright," I nodded.  "I understand," I said, placing my hand on her arm.

"I knew you would," she smiled up at me.

    I went back to staring at the sky, stars twinkling like diamonds, stretching over the expanse of a black velvet sky.  It was a perfect night.  Mainly because I could share it with Sayaki.

"You know, have you stopped to consider this situation?  We're in Balamb, which is like in the middle of nowhere to begin with, and we're in Balamb's like, wilderness.  So we are REALLY lost in the middle of forkin' nowhere," she smiled.  "But y'know what?  I don't feel lost at all…"

"Me either, Sayaki," I smiled at her, hesitated to see if she would stop me, and put my arm around her shoulders. 

"You know," she said, resting her head on my shoulder, "it's hard to believe in moments like these that there are still GFs to seal, still work to be done…it's like all the evil in the entire world should just stop whenever everything's this good…but it doesn't…it never stops…?"

"I know.  I wish that evil would just…go away, however corny that may sound.  But it's true.  It never, ever leaves, and evil is always in the future.  Quetzalcoatl told me that in the future, the GFs would be released again.  He didn't know who, but someone, someday, will unseal them and undo all that we've worked to accomplish.  I wish there was a way to stop that…"

"We don't have to worry about it.  I've read that book a hundred times over and it says that it'll take longer than our lifespans combined for the GFs to be unsealed.  By then there will be nothing I can do about it.  Not my problem anymore…" 

"Yeah, I guess…"  This was disturbing, but I would save my thought for a later time.  "Hmmm…" I mused.  "Should we head back or not yet?"

"I'm not driving," she said quickly.  "I proved to myself tonight that I can't drive anything with less than six wheels that doesn't fly.  Not to mention without some sort of navigation system, I'm as lost as they come.  I'm sorry I got us lost…I'll leave it up to you to get us un-lost, Commander," she grinned.

"Alright," I laughed, opening the passenger door for her. 

"…" she grinned and got in, smiling and laughing to herself, but making no attempt to tell me what about.

"Dare I ask?" I grinned, getting in myself and starting the car.

"You're funny, that's all."

"Okay," I raised my eyebrows.  "Whatever you say.  Feel free to explain yourself though."

"It's pointless to explain _myself _when this is about _you_," she smiled cheerfully.  "No, it's not important.  You'll never get it, and that's okay.  Hehehe…you're just so funny!" she giggled.

"Whatever," I smiled, leaving it at that.

"Whatever," she echoed, still grinning.

    I drove in silence, searching for something I recognized.  Finally we found our way to Balamb again.

"Rain-check on dinner, or are you still up for it?"  I looked at my watch, alarmed at the time.

"Rain check," she smiled.  "I've got work I should be doing…not that I'd rather be doing it," she rolled her eyes.

    I got out of the car quickly and opened the door for her.

"See ya tomorrow, Squall," she smiled.

"See ya," I gave her a hug and a quick kiss.  "Sweet dreams."

      I walked away, reliving the night in my mind.  It had been perfect.  Still, the GF problem bothered me.  I didn't tell her that it was going to happen in the near future.  Whether two years or twelve, or even twenty, I had no idea…  Who knew, though?  Maybe he or she or whoever would do it would be defeated or changed before it could happen.

      I didn't want to tell Sayaki when it would be because the fact that she had been learning this spell her entire life…I had a feeling she wouldn't take it the same way I had, since I'd only known it a few months.  All her life she had trained for these days…she'd be picked off, most likely, and she'd think I was an idiot, and I absolutely didn't want that.  Not at all.  I sighed, walking into my room and locking the door behind me.

Xifa's notes:  First of all, I want to apologize for that taking so long.  Really, I do.  I said Friday and it's like, two Fridays plus a day later.  I also feel kinda bad about this because Sefie and I are both gonna be gone all week next week…so the earliest I could update would be Friday.  And I promise I'll get one up this coming Friday or Saturday.  Not today, but the upcoming ones.  In acuality, I already have chapter ten…but I'm gonna be mean and make you all wait on it until Friday on account of Sefie and I won't be able to write chapter eleven until Monday. o.O  So…yeah…

      Thanks to everyone who reviewed, MS word for not giving me any trouble this morning, my computer for working, Fanfiction.net for letting me post all this stuff, and The Pillows for being awesome and writing 'Ride On, Shooting Star'. 

      Also, before I go for an entire week (cries…sort of), let me say two things.  Number one, I'm not gonna leave any more this summer, so there won't be any more of these problems!  Number two, if you like this story, me and Sefie wrote another story that's being posted when I post chapter ten…I'll get chapters one and two up maybe then, but I'm not sure what the title of mine is…it'll be my newest story .  and Sefie Lynne Tilmitt should soon have a story up called 'I'll Be', if she hasn't posted it already.  This is another duet project we did, so if you like this one, maybe you'll like those.  Okay, I'm done now.

      …Squenix owns FF8.  Go them.


	10. Chapter X

A/n:  I'm sorry the update took longer than promised.  I'm such a loser!  sobs  I know I should have been looking for these…but…I mean…those Rurouni Kenshin manga…so addictive…couldn't stop reading…

            In any case, I forced myself to stop reading and refused to let myself read the third one until I had FOUND chapter ten!  It ended up being in a binder underneath last year's school folders.  Don't ask me why, even I don't know. 

            So I'm sorry for the delay.  Blame it all on Xifa.  Hope you all are having a lovely June and thanks for reading!

Chapter X

            For the first time in a few weeks, it wasn't the announcement system that woke me up, but instead, this time, someone knocking on my door.  I rolled out of bed, hoping it was good.  I answered the door, and, figuring it was Zell or one of my other friends, didn't bother to attempt to tame my hair.

"Good morning," Laguna smiled cheerfully.

"O-oh.  G'morning," I smiled through a yawn, running a hand through my tousled hair, and not really caring how stupid I looked.  "C'mon in," I stepped aside to let him in.  "Eh, sorry if it's kinda a wreck.  That's the way it goes."

"Shoulda seen the house I lived in when I lived in Winhill for awhile," he shrugged.  "I was too, er, busy to clean it.  As long as it wasn't gross and just scattered instead, I wasn't too worried about it.  How have you been?"

"Pretty good, you?"

"Everything's been going well.  Came down from Esthar to help you guys out…after Griever I was a little reluctant to let you all fight this next one alone.  We're after Gilgamesh today, so…"

"Alright," I nodded.  "So Gilgamesh is the leader, right?  The GF who forced all the others to unjunction?"

"Absolutely.  So we know that not only does he have power, but he has some form of knowledge of those lovely Trabian spells," Laguna sighed.  "And you know what happened last time a GF knew these spells…"

            Realization suddenly dawned on me and washed over me.

"It's…pointless.  There has to be another way.  Because if we seal him, can't he just come back?"

"Not on his own.  Immortality has its drawbacks," Laguna smiled grimly.  "SO once he's gone, he's not comin' back for, like, a long time.  Thank heavens."

            Suddenly I couldn't stop myself from telling him all about the dream with Quetzalcoatl in it.  All the details, everything he told me about the GFs and their future unsealing…

"Did you tell Headmaster Cid and Sayaki?"

"Sayaki, or at least I've told her its coming.  I didn't tell Sayaki, really…I didn't tell her how soon it would be.  I haven't had a chance to speak with Headmaster Cid yet…"

"Okay.  Well, that's not really important right now.  Get ready to fight him, and…um…what was the plan…well, one of my other students is waiting for you outside as soon as you're ready.  Alrighty, Commander?"

"Yep."

            I had given up on ever having a name again.  I nodded at him, smiling.  Part of me right then wished I had forgiven him long ago.  I had missed so much time by being stupid and blaming him…I had missed a lot of the memories I could have had, even though at the time I was angry at him for not being there.  He was here now, and everything, at least.  So everything regarding him was okay.  I got ready as I thought about this, equipping my gunblade and storing as many grape potions as I could carry.  I remembered Sayaki only liked grape.  The irony of it made me grin.  Sayaki, even when she was hurt, would deny potions unless they were grape.  I laughed to myself and hurried out of my dorm once I was ready.

"Good morning, Commander Leonhart," came a cheerful voice.  I looked down to see Sayaki…well, if Sayaki was about a foot shorter.  "…you are Commander Leonhart, right?"

"Yeah," I nodded at Sayaki's double, or at least her 'mini-me' as some people would call it.

"My name is Mana Ghost," she saluted me.  Well, the salute was wrong, but at least it was an attempt.  "I'm Sayaki's younger sister.  I wasn't sure if you noticed, I mean, we don't look anything alike," she shrugged.  It was almost strange how she could keep such a straight face while joking.  "Mr. Laguna sent me here to help you seal Gilgamesh.  Guess it's gonna take all four of us.  I was supposed to get the details from you.  Like, you know, how many potions am I going to need to carry, because they're not gonna let me fight."

            This odd little girl had already made an impression on me.  I guess Sayaki and Mana…they both got me.  Mana seemed different, but that was okay, because I felt attached to her somewhat already.  She reminded me of Sayaki, and maybe that was why I liked her.

"Um…here…" I handed her some of my potions.  "They're grape," I laughed.  "It's all your sister likes, so…I do have a few cherry ones left if you like those or something…I have _no idea_ how many potions to carry.  I just usually drag along however many I have.  By the way, it's nice to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well.  I've heard a lot about you…it's about time I finally get to meet you," she nodded with a smile.  "I have a Trabian spell I'll use anyway…I just like having potions.  Makes me feel more secure.  …grape potions?  Sayaki's such a head case.  Everyone knows the citrus ones are the best."

            I laughed.  She was Sayaki's clone, not her sister.

"Alright then," I grinned at her.

"It's all your father's fault," she said conversationally as we walked to the Ragnarok.  I wondered how old she was.  "See, he only likes strawberry-kiwi ones.  I think we inherited it from him…um…well, I don't know how we would have, but whatever.  Maybe Dad picked it up from him and passed it on to us?  Indirect inheritance?" she shrugged.  "I don't' really know what I'm talking about."

"Ah well," I grinned.  "Maybe Laguna just rubbed off on you guys.  I agree with him, though.  Strawberry-kiwi is the best, although I'll deal with anything pretty much."

            She laughed as we boarded the Ragnarok.  She hopped in the driver's seat and turned to Sayaki, who was talking to Laguna.

"You have my approval," Mana said to Sayaki.

"Get out of that seat, Mana…"

"I'm driving!"

"NO."

            I grinned at the two.  Just alike.  Those two were just alike.

"Mr. Laguna, can't I drive?"

"C'mon, she's too young to drive!"

"So this was what I missed out on, not having more than one kid," Laguna grumbled.  "I'M DRIVING!"

            I sat down in a seat in the back, reading a book that I'd found when I was on a mission in Winhill.  I shut it, my heart racing, once I'd read the name in the cover of the leather book.  Written in loopy, elegant handwriting was Raine Leonhart, and later handwriting adding Loire with a smiley face and a heart.  I stood up and went over to Laguna.

"Laguna…?"

"Take over, Sayaki," Laguna stood up.  Sayaki yelled and dove into the seat.

"You almost made us wreck!"

"…it's on autopilot," Laguna beamed.  Sayaki muttered something and Mana giggled.  We walked outside the cockpit and Laguna turned to me.

"Whatcha want?" he asked with his typical cheerful smile.

"I was on a mission in Winhill once," I explained, trying to keep my voice even, "and I found this weird leather book in an old restaurant place—"

            Laguna didn't even have to open it up to know what it was.

"Raine's…" he trailed off.  I nodded.

"I didn't know what it was until I opened it just a minute ago, because I was too busy to read it and I figured on my spare time…yeah…I just thought you might want to have this," I said, my throat feeling tight as I handed Laguna the only piece of my mother I had left.

"Squall…" he stared down at it, then impulsively reached out and hugged me.  "I can't take it from you unless you've had time to read it.  I knew Raine.  You never did.  When you're done with it, I'd like to look through it…but I have memories of her.  You don't.  You can keep it…" he said, voice sounding odd.  

"Thank you," I hugged him back, and much to my embarrassment, tears stung my eyes.  I wiped them angrily away.

"No…thank you…I…" he shook his head.  "I never got to tell her goodbye…I'll never get the chance to do that, ever, but maybe I can at least get to hear her last words…hear her one last time…" he was crying too but didn't seem to care.  I couldn't help myself any longer.  I flipped through the pages and found the last page with writing on it.

_August 14th,_

_            Today is hard.  I miss Laguna, as I have every day in what feels like forever.  It's amazing that I lived without him for so long.  A few more days.  Just a few more days to wait…I'm excited, but scared.  Scared of what will happen, scared for Laguna, scared for Elle, scared for my son and myself…Everything is out of whack and seems different, almost faint.  I want more than anything to have Laguna back, and I want him to be here for Squall's birth.  I want him to at least see his son.  Will he ever come back?  Will I ever get to see him again?_

            I stopped reading and forced myself to put the book down.  I glanced over to Laguna, who'd been reading over my shoulder.  He was now in an intense stare down with the blank wall.  So this was what it had been like, waiting for someone and watching an uncertain future approach warily.

"I'm sorry…" I sighed and once again I forced the tears out of my eyes.  I hated crying.  I had to be strong, especially over something as trivial as a book.

"I kept putting off coming back.  She never told me about you…I guess it was gonna be a surprise.  I kept putting it off, though…I never thought she'd die before I got back…"

"It's okay.  You didn't know, and it's okay.  It's not like you knew, Dad…I'm just sorry I didn't forgive you sooner."

            The word 'dad' felt strange in my mouth.  But he was my father, and deep down, I cared about him.  I'd managed to get a smile out of him, at least.

"If I only I would have known…about anything…" he shook his head.  "It's too late now.  There's no sue in thinking about it.  I've learned from my mistakes, and that's all that matters at this point in time."

"Okay, I smiled sadly, not letting the tears flow over.

"It'll be quite a ride, since we're not sure where Gilgamesh is out now.  Just stay ready and we'll come back for you," Laguna nodded, walking out to give me some time alone.

            I sat back down to read the book.  It was going to take a lot of time and emotional energy, but if that's what it took to know my mother, then so be it.

A/n:  Well, what do you think?  Me and Sefie don't own anything 'cept the idea, Sayaki, and Mana!  Go Sayaki and Mana.  Anyways…

            It might have seemed pointless to bring Mana in this late in the story, but I seem to remember somebody asking more about Sayaki's past, and Mana's more of a talker about stuff like that than Sayaki is.  However, some of the stuff doesn't add out…I'll let you figure it out on your own -

            In any case, I'm gonna go type up chapter eleven now, before I, like, grab a manga and go to sleep reading it again.  Sanosuke, Kenshin…-

            Shutting up now…

Love and peace,

Xifa and Sefie Lynne

P.S.  If you have the time, go read "I'll Be" by Selphie Lynne Tilmitt or Sefie Lynne Tilmitt…I can't remember which…hits self in head with bass guitar, Haruko-san style  Anyways, you should read it.  Because it's by her.  And I helped write it, so…yeah.  See if you can guess which character's mine .  It'll be fun. 

            Seriously, saving and quitting…right now…

X and S         


	11. Chapter XI

A/n: Welcome to Chapter Eleven.  In this chapter, we don't own Final Fantasy VIII or any of it's happenings, and we don't own Elle, Laguna, Raine, or Squall, or the Ragnarok, or GFs, or Gilgamesh, or Martine, or Quetzalcoatl.  We do own Sayaki, even though her name is only mentioned once.  We also own the annoying little girl sitting in the front seat named Mana, and the basic idea.  Kudos to Squenix for everything else.

            You might be saying, this chapter came out fast!  It hasn't even been a week yet!  Xifa is feeling rather guilty for breaking both deadlines she promised, so she's putting out the next chapter.  Go Xifa.

            …however, there is no chapter twelve!  O.O  But I'll see Sefie tomorrow…maybe we'll throw something together.  I mean, we're kind of distracted right now, working on those random stories we started…so…yeah.  If it takes awhile, blame Animal Crossing.  . 

            …okay, sorry…here's the chapter now…

((these are Raine's journals, if you didn't know))

ALSO, THIS ENTIRE CHAPTER IS DONE BY SEFIE LYNNE TILMITT!  Go her!  I did nothing for this chapter 'cept the disclaimer and the boring junk.  Yay!

Chapter XI

September 1st

            Today, well, I should have changed the date.  It is now 1:31 a.m. on September 2nd.  Today was so…frustrating.  Amazing.  Intriguing.  All at once.  It's all because of a man that entered my life unexpectedly.  Laguna Loire was engraved on his nametag.

            IT all started when I was washing dishes and Ellone was upstairs coloring.  I was halfway through washing a plate when the door of the old restaurant I ran burst open.  I dropped the plate, shattering it, shocked and terrified at what I saw.  Two men carrying in a bedraggled man in a uniform, beat up beyond human recognition.  I did all I could for him.

            He's asleep right now, and I can't clean at the moment, because I would wake up Elle and/or Laguna.  I can't sleep.  So I'm writing in this journal that I had intended to write my first book in.  I've always had a passion for writing, but I never have enough time for it.

            My book was going to be a romance story.  I had my characters planned out and knew them inside out as if they were real.  I've never told anyone that I love to write.  Fiction is the best, because I have enough of real life every day.

            But in any case, it was going to go like this.  Alexandria (Alex) was 27, alone and working, but happy that way.  She worked as a waitress and had long since abandoned her dreams.  But then one night she met Zachariah.  Zach fascinated her, and they became good friends.  But Zach moved away, and went to fight in the war.  Alex sent him letters every day, and soon, much to Alex's surprise, he sent back an engagement ring.  But Zach never returned.  Morbid ending, but that was okay, because this story was made out of my hopes, dreams, fears, future, and most of all, it was made out of my heart.

            Well, enough ranting about my stories.  It's late and I'm going to bed.

--Raine Leonhart

September 6th

            Laguna is doing better.  He is so…oh, I don't know!  He is so frustrating!  Yet…somehow I find him quite amusing, funny, exciting…and I've figured out my favorite name.  Squall.  Isn't that sweet?  Squall, like a storm, yet calm and somewhat mysterious.  In any case, back to Laguna.  He could even be considered a friend, but he is driving me up the wall.  But that's okay, because he's so incredible.  I just don't know about him.  He is cute, I have to admit.  He has long dark hair (well, I don't really dig the length, but that's okay.) and he has the most brilliant eyes. He has the most adorable smile and he's really handsome.  But you know what?  That still doesn't stop him from driving me up the wall!  Oh well.  He's still an amazing person.  I think.  I'll write more later.

--Raine Leonhart

September 10th

            Elle calls Laguna "Uncle Laguna" and she has taken a great liking to him.  I have to say I'm quite fond of him too.  But I don't want to get too close to him, because I'm afraid.  He'll go back to the army sooner or later.  Then I'll just be hurt.  To be honest, while in school, I never really had a crush.  But I figured something out.  It is absolutely ridiculous, but I think I like Laguna.  I'm terrified of getting close to him, though…so for now I'll remain silent, hold my tongue and pretend that he is annoying.

--Raine Leonhart

September 15th

            Elle is hell-bent on the idea that I like Laguna.  Sadly, she's right.  Laguna is invading my heart, even though I haven't known him for long.  It's scary.  I don't want to lose him.

--Raine Leonhart

September 18th

            Laguna goes out on a patrol of sorts…there are monsters everywhere.  I'm worried about Elle.  The interest in time has grown again, and Elle's powers are so dangerous for her.  Why am I so scared of everything?  I'm afraid for Elle, afraid that Laguna will break my heart…why is it that I feel this way?

--Raine Leonhart

September 24th

            Oh my God.  This is so draining.  Elle is gone.  Laguna is going after her.  Now all I have to do is wait.  Wait and pray that everything will be okay.  I am alone, and I hate it.  I've gotten so used to Elle's laughter, Laguna's comforting voice, something to distract me from the truth.  From the truth that I'm going to die.  It might be in ten minutes, it might be in ten years, who knows, but someday I'm going to die because of this.  You see, I've got some disease (I can't spell the name of it), but it's going to kill me.  It's killing me even though I can't feel it.  But it's going to kill me, and everyone says basically that they give me two years at the most.  I am not ready to leave Laguna and Elle.  I'm so afraid.  I don't want to die.  And I can't tell anyone.  If I did…in any case, all anyone knows of me is that I own a little restaurant and that I have an adopted daughter.  I've never really had someone to tell.  But I can't tell Laguna.  I want to, and I know he'd listen to me.  But I am absolutely _petrified_ that he'll want nothing to do with me if I tell him.  I'm trapped in a corner with nowhere to run.  What now?

October 7th

            Elle is back and okay.  She keeps begging me to sew her a princess dress for Halloween.  She'll die when she sees it.  I'm glad I learned how to sew for once.  This is the first dress I've made.  Usually I just sew to fix clothes.  In any case, Elle's dress is bright pink with little rhinestones all around the collar and frills and lace at the bottom.  I bought a plastic tiara from the store and she squealed when I bought it.  She chattered about how perfect Halloween would be.  She wants Laguna and I to dress up as the King and Queen.  For a little girl she catches on quickly.  I'm trying to worm out of being a queen, but if I have to, I'll wear the one dress I own; it's blue and strapless, which very much leads to my discomfort.  It's annoyingly…puffy.  Yes, puffy and fanned out.  But my high school friends had said it looked okay when I wore it to senior prom.  I took it out and washed it.  There had been practically an inch of dust on it!

            Laguna is my hero.  Despite all my attempts not to, I think I've fallen in love with Laguna.

--Raine Leonhart

October 31st

            We just got back from trick-or-treating.  Elle made out like a bandit and Laguna made me blush more than once.  He asked me out on a date, and yes, we were the king and queen and Elle was the princess.  I've never seen her so excited as when she saw the dress.  But I feel really bad tonight, so I'm going to bed.

--Raine Leonhart

November 12th

            A week and a half ago I went on a date with Laguna, and wince then have been out on two more.  He is so great.  But I find the terrifying reality looming nearer.  This is going just like my story.  The girl, working at the restaurant, meets the man of her dreams and they're happy together.  Next?  Will reality follow suit?  I am so confused I don't know which way is up.  I'm in love.  It feels so strange.  IT feels right, but as I've said so many times before…I am so afraid.

            I had to stop there because the Ragnarok had stopped.  I noted how the page I was on was tear-stained.  The ink was smudged with my mother's tears.  My own were still hot on my cheeks.  I wiped them away before Sayaki could see, and used a small piece of paper to mark my place.  I didn't want to dog-ear this record, this precious piece of my mother.  It was all that was left to me, because I had no memories of her.  I hoped I didn't look like I had been crying.  I tucked the book gingerly into the safety of my bag.  In the future that book would be my source of solace, comfort, and truth in good times and bad.  I would read it in every spare second I could at any time.  Sometimes in the future, I would stay up all night reading it.  But that's another story.

            Now I had to fight Gilgamesh, and I felt a strange anger towards him suddenly.  He was the cause of all this; of losing Quetzalcoatl, of Martine's death, the revolt of the GFs…I had business to take care of.

            Go Sefie for writing that, go me for staying up until 11 o'clock writing it.  (Yes, this is late for me.  And annoying when I have manga to be reading!!)  I had to type this off of a printed out version of this story from a word processor, and I think I'll include Sefie's notes just for fun.

Sefie's Notes:

(written beside some smudged words) stupid eraser.  DIE PENCIL

(written on margin sides of paper or whatever)  I'm sorry.  The stupid word processor kept deleting lines that didn't show up till I printed.  Many apologies.  I also apologize for the smudged writing.  Look at that line!  It says when the door of the in the huge smudge, I hate this eraser.

(final note) Stupid word processor =P

Interesting fact number one:  In the original version of 'Ghost', the letters that Squall wrote to Laguna were included right after the chapter that ends 'I sat down to write a letter to Laguna'.  In the redraft, they're posted as a bonus chapter.

Interesting fact number two:  In the original version of 'Ghost', Quetzalcoatl is actually rejunctioned to Squall immediately after the battle with Griever.  Obviously not in this draft.

Love and peace,

Xifa and Sefie     


End file.
